Oct 8, 2020
US dairy company Dreyers has definite plans to rebrand its 100-year-old Eskimo Pie ice cream to “Edy’s Pie” after deciding that the name was “offensive”.
And the brand’s Australian licensee Peters will follow suit, rebranding the product by the name of “Polar Pie”.
Eskimo PIe was given license to South Australia’s Alaska Ice Cream company in 1923 and is now produced by “Peters” while in New Zealand, the brand was introduced in the 1940s and is manufactured by Tip Top, it will be retired soon.
Eskimo Pie – a chocolate-coated ice cream wrapped in foil – was invented by Danish immigrant to the US Christian Kent Nelson a schoolteacher and candy store owner, according to Wikipedia. He “claimed to have received the inspiration for the Eskimo Pie in 1920 in Onawa, Iowa, when a boy in his store was unable to decide whether to spend his money on ice cream or a chocolate bar”.
With time lapse to today, Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream acknowledged the brand name was offensive back in July, part of a slew of brand corrections in recent months which has included Mars’, Uncle Ben’s and PepsiCo’s; Aunt Jemima’s in the US and Saputo’s Coon cheese in Australia.
In 2021, next year, the US Eskimo Pie will be sold as Edy’s Pie, the name of one of the company’s founders, Joseph Edy, and already used as a brand in parts of the US.
In Australia, Peters country head Emma-Jane Collins said that Polar Pie preserves “a strong association back to the original brand and product idea which was a frozen treat you eat much like a pie – whilst aligning with our values, and current attitudes and perspectives”.
“Peters Ice Cream is committed to being a part of the solution on racial equality and we acknowledge that now is the time for a change.”
NZ’s Tip Top informed that in June it would give up the name, while confectionery brand Pascall plans to rebrand it as “Eskimo Lollies”.
According to News Corp, quoting Lawrence Kaplan from the University of Alaska’s Alaska Native Language Centre, the term ‘Eskimo’ was considered a “colonial term” and is now “receding from common use”.
“Although the name ‘Eskimo’ was commonly used in Alaska to refer to Inuit and Yupik people of the world, this usage is now considered unacceptable by many or even most Alaska Natives, largely since it is a colonial name imposed by non-Indigenous people,” Kaplan said.
“Alaska Natives increasingly prefer to be known by the names they use in their own languages, such as Inupiaq or Yupik. ‘Inuit’ is now the current term in Alaska and across the Arctic, and ‘Eskimo’ is fading from use.”
Elizabell Marquez, the head of marketing for Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream, said the company was “committed to being a part of the solution on racial equality”.