Every business knows the importance of a recognisable brand, but some well-known companies decided that a new name was in order this year. From brands keen to distance themselves from the past to those who were put under pressure to change, read on to discover seven famous names that got a new moniker in 2021, and why.
Now owned by PepsiCo, the Aunt Jemima's range of pancake mix, syrups, and breakfast foods was introduced to America in the late 1880s. The brand's eponymous Aunt Jemima is a character that was based on the racist 'Mammy' stereotype, an enslaved Black woman who looks after white children. It has even been claimed that Aunt Jemima was inspired by Nancy Green, a former slave and housekeeper who was hired to promote the business. In doing so, she became the first living embodiment of a trademark in advertising history – and most likely didn't see her fair share of the profits.
The image of Aunt Jemima has been changed several times to "remove racial stereotypes that dated back to the brand's origins". After more than 130 years on our shelves, parent company PepsiCo finally agreed to retire the Aunt Jemima branding for good in summer 2020. The company revealed the product line's new name of Pearl Milling Company in February 2021, and updated packaging began to appear on shelves from June. Pearl Milling Company was the name of the brand's original parent company, and was founded back in 1888.
Based in Edmonton, Alberta, the Eskimos are a Canadian football team that was founded in 1949. But the Eskimo name dates much further back. According to ESPN, the moniker has been associated with a variety of different sports teams (including baseball and ice hockey clubs) in Edmonton since the 19th century, and a Canadian football team known as the Edmonton Elks played briefly for the city in 1922. By the 2010s, however, people were starting to criticise the use of the word 'Eskimo', which was considered a derogatory way to refer to Inuit people.
In 2020, after initially announcing that they would keep the moniker, the team eventually agreed that its name had to change. It was known as the Edmonton Football Team for a short period, and continued 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 and in June 2021, the club's rebrand to the Edmonton Elks was officially revealed.
Coon cheese has been sold in Australian supermarkets for around 80 years. According to previous manufacturers, the cheese was named after Edward William Coon, who patented a method of maturing cheese in the 1920s. Critics have argued, however, that contemporary records show no evidence that the cheese was made using Coon's method. Customers have long campaigned for the brand owners to change the product's name, due to its connotations with a racial slur. Finally, in January 2021, current owner Saputo Inc. announced its new name.
From July 2021, the offensive name has disappeared from shelves forever. In its place? Cheer cheese, a name that Saputo Inc. hopes will evoke nothing but happiness and tingling tastebuds. One person has been unable to enjoy the news, however. Dr Stephen Hagan, an academic and activist, spent 20 years campaigning for the name of the cheese to be changed. He revealed that he'd been targeted with racist abuse after the rebrand was confirmed, "all because [he] dared to challenge the status quo of a racial slur used on a popular cheese brand".
The history of the Cleveland Indians is rooted in the 1890s, when the franchise started life as the Grand Rapids Rustlers. In 1900, the team moved to Cleveland and changed its name to the Cleveland Lake Shores – but that moniker wasn't to last long either. Over the next decade, the team went through several other names: they were known first as the Cleveland Bluebirds, then the Cleveland Bronchos, and then the Cleveland Naps. The champion MLB team, which has won the World Series twice (in 1920 and 1948), finally settled on the Cleveland Indians in 1915.
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: the eight statues that stand on the Hope Memorial Bridge and were built in 1932 to symbolise developments in transportation. Brian Barren, the team's president of business operations, said: "It's less about the Guardians of Traffic and more about what the Guardians represent and that idea of protection".
From the sports field to Silicon Valley. SurveyMonkey was founded in 1999 and made its name by offering online survey tools. But after going public in 2018, the company has been keen to expand its repertoire of software. According to CEO Zander Lurie, the business now aims to provide all the tools that managers need, not only to collect feedback from employees or customers but to also implement technological changes based on survey results.
In June 2021, SurveyMonkey announced that it was rebranding. According to Fortune, executives at the company believed the name ‘SurveyMonkey’ led people to assume, understandably, that the business was solely focused on surveys. Enlisting its own software tools, which are currently used by more than 20 million people around the globe, the company sought feedback from customers and employees to pick its new name. The result was Momentive, “a made-up word” that “symbolises momentum, adaptability, active, momentous – this moment in time", according to Lurie.
Jack Dorsey found fame in the business world as the co-founder of Twitter, but the social network wasn't the only online venture up his sleeve. In 2009, Dorsey co-founded Square, a digital payments company. The brand's original name was reportedly Squirrel, with its card readers – which enable people to accept card payments via their mobile phone – shaped like acorns. This idea was clearly considered to be nuts, and the business was renamed to Square by the time of its 2009 launch. Dorsey changed its name again in December 2021.
Just days after resigning from his role of CEO at Twitter, Dorsey announced that Square would be changing its corporate name to Block. The rebrand will reflect the company’s increasing interest in blockchain technology, which can be used to encrypt and record payment information online. But it's not gone down well with everyone. On 16 December, tax preparation company H&R Block sued Block for trademark infringement. In a statement to the press, H&R Block's president and CEO Jeff Jones said: "Today’s filing is an important effort to prevent consumer confusion and ensure a competitor cannot leverage the reputation and trust we built over more than six decades".
Mark Zuckerberg co-founded Facebook from his Harvard dorm room in 2004. Initially created for Ivy League students, Facebook – or ‘TheFacebook’ as it was first known – took its name from the ‘face books’ used as student directories on campus. By September 2006, the website was available to anyone aged 13 and over. Its parent company, also called Facebook, went public in 2012 with a record-breaking valuation of $104 billion. But it hasn't all been smooth sailing for the Big Tech corporation.
In October 2021, Facebook announced a rebrand. It seemed an unusual move for one of the world’s most recognisable companies. Although its flagship social network will still be called Facebook, the parent company has changed its name to Meta “to reflect its focus on building the metaverse", an interactive virtual reality world.
However, critics have suggested the change is actually Zuckerberg’s attempt to distance the business from its catalogue of controversies. From its ties to disgraced consulting company Cambridge Analytica to accusations of promoting fake news, Facebook is no stranger to scandal.
Despite its rebrand, Meta has still been crowned the worst company of 2021 according to polls conducted by Yahoo Finance – so it could take more than a name change to shake off its dubious reputation.
Now discover how companies facing a make-or-break 2021 fared