Oops! Vegemite Contest Controversy over iSnack 2.0 Name

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Share This \| Related Oops! Vegemite Contest Controversy over iSnack 2.0 Name
By Karen Diaz Nov 3, 2009

Earlier this year, Kraft Foods released a new version of Vegemite. To coincide with the release of the new recipe, Kraft ran a competition to the product a name. The winner was iSnack 2.0 and Australians weren't happy with the selection.

He just smiled and gave me a Vegemite sandwich...

Remember this? "He was six foot four and full of muscles. I said, do you speak-a my language? He just smiled and gave me a Vegemite sandwich." - Men at Work (pictured) circa 1982.

The company would abandon the name within 72 hours after concluding it was not worth the effort due to the ire raised over the name. The New York Times covers the controversy here noting that Australians are passionate about Vegemite as it is an iconic food product in that country.

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"Australian food was really bad until the 1970s: boiled meat and vegetables without any butter or salt. Vegemite was one of the things that actually had any flavor, and that's why it became so incredibly popular," Bill Granger told the Times.

What's the winner now? Cheesybite.

The paper notes that jars with the Cheesybite name will appear on shelves only after Kraft unloads about 500,000 jars printed with the iSnack 2.0 name — in two or three months).

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