Every business knows the importance of a recognisable brand. But from famous sports teams to iconic American groceries, some have attracted attention for all the wrong reasons. Amid a long-overdue push for equality and cultural sensitivity, these companies have all decided to adopt a whole new identity. Read on to discover some of the biggest brands that came under pressure to change their names and why.

In September 2020, Mars Inc. bowed to public pressure and announced it would be changing the name of its iconic Uncle Ben's rice product range to Ben's Original and ditching the controversial packaging imagery. The term 'uncle' has historically been used by white people to refer to Black men, a derogatory title that meant they could avoid addressing people as 'Mr' or 'Sir'. Meanwhile, the image of the smiling elderly African-American man wearing what could be a servant's collar evokes the myth of happy servitude. 

The Uncle Ben's name change came hot on the heels of the retirement of PepsiCo's Aunt Jemima. Like Uncle Ben's, both the name and product imagery could be considered racist – in this case the use of 'Aunt' in a disrespectful way and the product picture, which evokes the racist 'Mammy' stereotype. Not everyone agrees, however, including the descendants of Aunt Jemima models Lillian Richard and Anna Short Harrington, who have objected to the rebrand. Since June 2021, the pancake mix and syrup products have been sold under the name Pearl Milling Company. 

Rival syrup brand Mrs. Butterworth's also evokes the 'Mammy' stereotype with its bottle shaped in the form of a matronly woman. In June 2020, the brand's parent company Conagra acknowledged that its product could be perceived in a negative way and promised to conduct a complete brand and packaging review, which could include a name change. As of 2022, however, no official rebrand has been announced. 

Activists have fought for years to have the name of this Australian cheese brand changed, with some claiming the moniker was adopted in the 1930s as a “racist joke”, challenging the official story, which states the product was named after American cheesemaker Edward William Coon. Whatever its origins, the current owner, Canadian dairy firm Saputo, agreed the offensive name had to go and declared the brand name would be changed to Cheer from July 2021.

Sports teams with names that could be perceived as culturally insensitive at best and blatantly racist at worst haven't held back from rebranding, including the Cleveland Indians. The Indians' name and branding has been controversial for decades, with many people objecting to its stereotypical mascot and appropriation of Native American culture. After the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 sparked conversations about institutional racism, the Cleveland Indians announced that they would change their name – and in July 2021 rebranded to the Cleveland Guardians. The name was inspired by the Guardians of Traffic sculptures, eight statues that stand on the Hope Memorial Bridge. 

Staying with sports teams, the Washington Redskins finally dropped the Redskins part in 2020 after decades of pressure from activists, who associate the football team's name and imagery with harmful stereotypes. In fact, the decision came after sponsors Nike, FedEx and PepsiCo, acting on calls by investors, urged the team to drop the racist epithet. The club used the name Washington Football Team while it considered a new permanent name, and finally settled on the Washington Commanders. 

Nestlé has renamed a brand of candy it sells in Australia called Red Skins for the same reason. The company released a statement in November 2020 admitting the brand was “out of the step” with Nestlé values and went on to change the product's name to Red Ripper. However, the new name wasn't a complete success either and raised more than a few eyebrows, given it's the nickname of an infamous Russian serial killer.

At the same time, the Swiss food giant revealed it would be giving the Chicos brand of candy, which also retails in Australia, a new identity following customer feedback. The name of the chocolate-flavoured jelly baby confection means 'boys' in Spanish and has racist overtones. The product is now known as Cheekies.

Nestlé didn't stop there. Following what must have been an in-depth review of its brands around the world, the Swiss company also made the decision to rename its Beso de Negra chocolate-coated marshmallow product, which is sold in Colombia. Along with a name that means 'kiss from a black woman', the packaging features what many would argue is a racist caricature of a woman of colour.

Knorr has been doing much the same thing. In June 2020, the German food company, which is owned by Unilever, said it would be renaming its classic Zigeuner Sauce ('Gypsy Sauce') to Paprikasauce Ungarische Art ('Paprika Sauce Hungarian Style'). Activists had voiced strong objections to the word 'Zigeuner', which is a racial slur against Roma and Sinti people.

This restaurant chain, which had a South Indian boy as a mascot along with a racist name, once had 1,100 locations across the US. The last remaining Sambo's in Santa Barbara, California changed its name last year when members of the public, compelled to act by the Black Lives Matter movement, petitioned the owner. He initially rebranded as 'Peace and Love', then called the place Chad's after himself.

Used to refer to the American south, the word 'Dixie' is laden with connotations of slavery and racism, which has prompted an increasing number of brands that bear the name to drop it completely. Cue the beverage formally known as Dixie Beer. Mindful of the name's negative associations, the Big Easy's oldest brewery rebranded as the Faubourg Brewing Company in tribute to the “diverse neighbourhoods of New Orleans”.

Ditto country music band Dixie Chicks. Having become uncomfortable with the connotations the word 'Dixie' conjures up, the politically outspoken group, which caused a storm in 2003 when its members expressed their objection to the Iraq War, deleted the word from their name back in June 2020 and are now known simply as the Chicks.

Another country music band, Lady Antebellum did some serious soul-searching in 2020 and decided to scrap the word 'Antebellum' from their name. Antebellum refers to the pre-Civil War American south and everything associated with it, including slavery, which the term is seen as romanticising. Now called Lady A, the band was reportedly inspired to change the name by the Black Lives Matter protests.

The same year, US band Slaves followed Dixie Chicks and Lady Antebellum and announced a name change, which its five members said had come about through their support of the Black Lives Matter movement and the realisation that the word is associated “with so much pain and hurt”. However, a UK band that also uses the name Slaves has refused to change its name, despite criticism that the term being used by a band of white men could be deemed racist. Guitarist Laurie Vincent explained: "If you pick up an Oxford dictionary and look up the word 'slaves', there is no mention of any racial context. A slave is a person who is owned by another person and forced to work for free."  

The word 'Eskimo' has been recognised as a racial slur for years, but still featured in many brand names around the world. Not any more. Dreyer's for instance has removed the offensive term from its Eskimo Pie, which was launched a hundred years ago, renaming the chocolate-coated vanilla ice cream bar Edy's Pie after one of the company's founders.

Adding to the push to call time on the racist name, the Edmonton Eskimos Canadian football team also moved to change its moniker following months of consultation with the lnuit community. For a short period it was known as the Edmonton Football Team, continuing to use a logo that consisted of two interlinked letter Es. The president of the team, Chris Presson, reportedly hoped to keep this logo as well as the club's green and gold colour scheme. In June last year, the club officially revealed its rebrand to the Edmonton Elks. 

Understanding “the hurtful connotation the word 'plantation' can evoke to some people”, Maison Ferrand, the French drinks company behind Plantation Rum, announced that it would change the product's name, which is closely associated with slavery and the oppressive system that propped it up. Like Mrs Butterworth's, however, the brand hasn't yet sealed the deal by rebranding.

Spurred on by Black Lives Matter, the "Great Racist Purge", as one commentator has called it, reached far and wide in 2020. As a result, Colgate told the world that it was reviewing the name of its product Darlie, which is sold in Asia. Shockingly, the product was originally called Darkie and in China, the product name '黑人牙膏' still meant "Black person toothpaste". From March this year, the company will officially be rebranding the product to '好來', which in translation mirrors the product slogan: "good things come with a smile." 

Products that lighten skin tone have long been criticised for their role promoting colourism and racist beauty ideals, so it comes as no surprise that manufacturers are keen to play down their whitening properties. Unilever, for example, has changed the name of its Fair & Lovely product range, which is massively popular in Asia, to Glow & Lovely, eliminating the words 'fair', 'lightening' and 'whitening' from all brand names.

Johnson & Johnson has joined Unilever in axing products that have the word 'fair' or 'fairness' in their name, including the firm's Clean & Clear Fairness skin-whitening line. The products disappeared from stores in India last year. The US company is also culling the Neutrogena Fine Fairness range that retails in the Middle East and Asia.

L'Oréal is also taking action to remove the words 'fair', 'light', 'white' and 'whitening' from its extensive range of skincare products to stand “in solidarity with the Black community, and against injustice of any kind”. Among the brands that are undoubtedly going for good is White Perfect, one of the French firm's flagship skincare lines.

New Zealand's Indiginous Gin was blasted in early 2020 for cultural appropriation, as its label features a design based on a traditional Māori tattoo. The uproar prompted the company to ditch the label and it's also changed its name to Imagination Gin, after criticism of its play on the word 'indigenous' too. 

Criticism of Trader Joe's seemingly racist ethnic food brands, which had names like Trader Ming's, Trader Jose's, Arabian Joe and Trader Giotto's, reached a fever pitch in 2020. Although the US supermarket chain insisted that the names weren't racist, the brands were renamed in July 2020 after an online petition calling for their removal amassed thousands of signatures. Now, the lines all carry the original Trader Joe's branding.

Cleaning product Spic and Span may have taken its name from a phrase meaning spotlessly clean, but marketers exploited the pejorative meaning of the word 'Spic' and created the 'Señor Sleepy' mascot, basically an offensive caricature of a Hispanic man. In June 2020, Proctor & Gamble came clean about “the brand’s origins rooted in racial hatred of Latino peoples” and vowed to change the name and logo, though no rebrand has been announced as yet.

Vegan cookbook brand Thug Kitchen was accused of "digital blackface" and exploiting Black culture due to the use of the word 'thug' in its name, before it eventually resolved to rebrand to Bad Manners in 2020. The LA-based company defended its use of the term, explaining that it wasn't so loaded when the brand was born in 2012.

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South Carolina company Geechie Boy Mill, which sells heirloom grits and other products, had apparently been considering a name change for some time when the Black Lives Matter protests spurred it into action. Geechie is the name of a dialect that's mainly spoken by the descendants of enslaved African-American people around the Ogeechee River in Georgia. Believing its name appropriated Black culture, the business announced that it would be rebranding to Marsh Hen Mill from September 2020.