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Remember Jif? (and 8 other annoying rebrandings)

There was bad news on the jobs front this morning that Superquinn will be shedding 102 staff when...
Newstalk
Newstalk

12.59 7 Aug 2013


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Remember Jif? (and 8 other ann...

Remember Jif? (and 8 other annoying rebrandings)

Newstalk
Newstalk

12.59 7 Aug 2013


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There was bad news on the jobs front this morning that Superquinn will be shedding 102 staff when it rebrands as Supervalu next year. 

Rebranding is commonplace in Ireland, usually occuring when one company buys out another, or a company wants to align its branding across a territory. 

Sometimes, though, the new names are worse than the originals:

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Vodafone

In Vodafone's past life it was Eircell, the mobile division of state-owned Telecom Éireann. Eircell was responsible for introducing the pay as you go system in 1997 before being bought out of Vodafone in 2000. But the rebranding wasn't cold turkey; for two years it was awkwardly known as Eircell Vodafone. 

O2

Like Vodafone, O2 had a past life, this time as the decidedly less catchy Esat Digifone. But the introduction of the O2 name also introduced a great deal of confusion over whether that O was the capital letter or number. (It's the first one.)

Cif

Called Jif until 2001, like us you probably have vague memories of your mammy using the stuff to scour the bathtub. Interestingly, while it was renamed Cif across Europe it's still known as Jif in Australia, New Zealand and some other countries. 

Bonus: did you know Jif is also the name of a popular brand of peanut butter sold in North America?

Bonus 2: it's also the name of that little plastic lemon you only ever see on Pancake Tuesday:

Daim

This gorgeous slimline toffee bar was once known as Dime, but was renamed in 2005 to coincide with European branding. This lead to an entire generation of Irish people mispronouncing it as "Dame".

Oh, the humanity. 

Veet

As if the idea of hair removal cream isn't shiver inducing enough, they had to go and rename it from the virtually harmless Immac to the horrific-sounding Veet sometime in the 2010s. 

Snickers

You vowed that when they changed the name of the peanutty, caramelly goodness that was the Marathon bar you'd never go along with such blasphemy. And yet, here you are more than two decades later calling it Snickers. 

Good job sticking it to the man, ya eejit. 

Aviva Stadium

Whatever about Snickers; you will never, EVER call Aviva Stadium anything other than Landsdowne Road. Then again, give it a few more years. 

The O2

How can you tell you're a 90s kid? You still call it The Point even though all the kids call it The O2. The Luas also ignored the rebranding, no doubt causing endless confusion for tourists. 

Eircom

Stick that fancy organge thing in your logo, Eircom. We'll always remember good ol' Telecom Éireann and its crappy 80s logo. 


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