Not Happy Little Vegemites!

The winner of the competition to name Kraft’s new Vegemite and Cream Cheese spread was announced at the Autralian Football League (AFL) Grand Final in Melbourne this weekend.

A Western Australian man, Dean Robbins, 27, leapt out of his chair when he realised his labelling had been chosen from thousands of entries. Mr Robbins is reported as saying he would be pleased to go down in history as the person that named the new product, however his dreams took a turn for the worse.

The new snack was to be named iSnack 2.0, until today. Kraft have reacted quickly to damning responses from the public and social networking sites which clearly indicate the name is not a popular choice.

Facebook polls have overwhelmingly canned the name and groups have been established to lampoon it.

Vegemite is an Australian icon dating back to 1923 when the first competition was run to name the original product. Marmite, Promite and other forms of ‘mites’ have not been able to approach the popularity of Vegemite in Australia. Vegemite has a staunch and committed loyal following.

Image via Wikipedia

One way an Australian expat values the quality of grocery shopping in a new country is to see whether Vegemite is on the shelves at the supermarket. It seems an Aussie is a ‘Happy little Vegemite’ when they can secure the dark, salty, yeasty spread. In Australia most children would be raised knowing the words to the song “We’re Happy Little Vegemites”. It has become an Australian nursery rhyme, sometimes being taught in schools and used for concerts and performances for primary aged children.

It was always going to be a tough gig to name the new product. Maybe “iSnack” would have not ellicited such a response, but with the “2.0″ added it becomes dated, marginalised and has obviously raised the ire of the voting public.