Firstly can I just say I hate the word ‘ain’t’ and I know it isn’t a proper word before anyone thinks I have lost the ability to write coherently.  Thanks.  Now I’ve cleared that up, I’ll begin.

Recently online and in the news there has been a lot of comments and articles and a bit of a hullabaloo about Salad Cream being changed to Sandwich Cream.  Sandwich Cream – what on earth is that all about?  Apparently people don’t put salad cream on salad anymore and are more likely to put it in sandwiches so they are considering changing the name to sandwich cream.  Can I just say that I remember having ham and salad cream sandwiches for my school packed lunch when I was in secondary school so it’s hardly a new concept, unless my Mum set the trend 😊 Yay way to go Mum! (I must let her know. )  So just because more people nowadays are having it in sandwiches than salad it all has to change.  So what? I put salad cream in with hard boiled eggs, that doesn’t mean it had to be called egg cream.  I also discovered recently that – this sounds really gross but don’t knock it til you try it – salad cream is delicious on peas.  Are they going to change it to pea cream? No I didn’t think so!  Salad cream is also nice on chips, new potatoes and vegetables  and some people like it on everything, one of my sons even used to put it on pasta (Yeah I know, I’m not sure abut that either…)  For goodness sake it’s been called salad cream for 104 years, leave it alone! Apparently some people have started a petition to keep the name but we’ll see.

Why do companies feel the need to rebrand? I don’t really get it.  Actually I kind of do, sometimes I think about renaming my blog because I’m indecisive and think I could name it something better. However I probably won’t and that is a bit different to the massive brands that I’m going to discuss today.

Here are some things that I can think of that have changed their name for one reason or another.  My first contender is those lovely, juicy, chewy sweets that used to be called Opal Fruits – which are now called starburst. They are the same sweets, I think the wrappers are the same but they changed the name to Starburst.  Opal fruits was a pretty decent name and I remember the advert on TV where there was a family out for a day trip in the car and the song was “Opal fruits, made to make your mouth water.”  So probably every child up and down the country would nag their parents if they were going on a car journey or out for a picnic or something and say they neeeeeed Opal Fruits to stop them being thirsty on the journey.  TBH I don’t remember having bottled water in those days, maybe we just didn’t…Anyway Mars felt the need to change it in 1998 because the rest of the world called it Starburst.  What’s wrong with being a bit different?

I guess we should all be grateful that we get to keep some of these things and they didn’t just get rid of them altogether, like Spangles or different flavoured Toffos – do you remember them? They were delicious and banana, chocolate and strawberry flavour , they nearly pulled your teeth out but hey they tasted so good!

Another thing I remember changing was Marathon.  They were changed to Snickers in 1990, again because this was the global market name.  For ages I refused to call them Snickers bars because I thought it was stupid – oh what a rebel I am lol.  Actually every now and again I still call them marathons because I think the name is better!

Olay used to be called Oil of Olay, I only just realised it wasn’t and still think of it as Oil of Olay even though it doesn’t say that on the packaging.  I think this must be one where the change was more subtle and gradual because I don’t remember a big deal being made about it.   I think also it used to be called Oil of Ulay and I remember it being pink, I think.

Cif cleaner used to be called Jif. My theory for the change of name here is that the Jif cream cleaner was lemon so sounded like Jif lemon – the lemon juice you put on pancakes.  Perhaps some wise guy thought people would get confused with the weird textured cream that you clean your bath with – that is a complete pain to rinse off properly – and pour it on their pancakes.  This was another one I thought was stupid so I still call it Jif sometimes.  It’s actuslly still called Jif in some countries, I think that name is nicer don’t you?

Hmm what else can I think of? Oh yes – and this one I don’t really get at all because it looks weird and just like the spelling is wrong.  Dime bars, as in “You’ll never forget your first Dime,” changed it’s nane to Daim.  I don’t understand the reason for that at all.

Oh yes, lastly, this is one I will never say differently, I’ve noticed that people have started calling lovely old macaroni cheese – mac n cheese.  Why?  Well I think I know why, I expect it’s because in other countries it might be called that.  I’ve even noticed in the supermarket you can buy frozen mac n cheese.  Here I go again, that little rebel inside, I will never call it mac n cheese because to me it’s macaroni cheese and in my house that’s what you’ll get!!