Moderation in all things??....

Whilst I totally agree that some things from a 'less enlightened' era deemed offensive nowadays need to be changed... e.g. renaming a certain American Football team, a logo from a certain brand of jam and the name and picture on a packet of fast cook rice (which reminded me of Samuel L. Jackson's character in Django!), I think the following example is a 'bridge too far' in that the product name is the surname the man who actually pioneered the ripening process.
This case obliterates the legacy of a man from history whose only 'crime' is that he has a name that causes offence to a vociferous minority. Given there is a breed of cat that carries the same name, that dates back before the time of Marie Antoinette , what next? Do we change the name of those too?

In an age of social media there will always be someone somewhere who is offended by something. The old 'you can please some of the people all of the time.......' . saying has never been truer. All it takes is for someone to complain and you get people jumping on the bandwagon (often people who are least affected by the subject matter). It is these spurious cases (only my opinion) like the one below where, I suspect, many of those objecting saw the words and did not bother to research how it came about, that devalues the whole argument.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55628966

 

It needed changing though.

 

Those uppity blacks, getting offended by racist words...

If they didn't want to "obliterate the legacy" (lol) of Edward William Coon then they were free to rename it Edward Cheese, EWC Cheese etc. etc.

I don't see oversensitive bandwagon jumping here, rather I see someone stretching to try and argue about "political correctness gone mad"

 

Unfortunately there's always going to be someone offended by something , it's the world we live in today and it's pretty sad

 

Surprised its not been changed before now .

 

I disagree with the op. Coon cheese has negative connotations both racially and sexually.

 

Why wouldn't you change an offensive word, to something which doesn't offend, if it is within your gift?

 

If you had an offensive surname now, the product wouldn't be named after it so I don't see the problem with changing the product name to recognise that now. It's the same as how companies have different names for their products in different countries to avoid things like that. If your surname was Penis it wouldn't be written all over the packs of food. It wouldn't be your fault that your name was Penis and it's nothing against you but it still wouldn't be sold under that name.

 

Unless it was a sausage lol

 

That happened a lot with cars that needed rebranding

Nova means "it doesn't go" in Spanish
MR2 sounds like **** (merde) in French
The Mitsubishi Pajero means "Mitsubishi w4nker" in Spanish

 

Exactly the sort of response I would have expected from you (including the usual attempt to divert the argument to making personal comments.) You have every right to disagree with my PoV but you always seem to come off an an angry individual who resorts to insults with anyone who has a different PoV to your own.

Moreover you usually (as is the case here) fail to address the main point. What about those names e.g. Main Coons (breed of cat) however innocent are now being associated with racism and causing 'offence' where none is, or ever was, intended?

 

You can see why it needed changing though?

 

Edward William Cheese sounds quite posh. They should have called it that. 'Ill have a slice of Edward William wi' me pork pie....'

 

Really? I'd say that description fits you more than me. I've never called anyone a f*ckwit on here as far as I can remember...

If Maine Coons were more common then yeah, I probably would support renaming it but the name of a cat breed is less pressing than being confronted with a racist slur every time you visit the dairy section.

Out of interest, if his name had been Edward William Cunt would you have been fine with "Cunt Cheese" being on the shelves?

 

The thing is , it says in that article aboriginal representatives have been asking for a name change for years. Its not a new thing.

 

It wasn't an offensive word

Up to a point but where do you draw the line. No one has responded to my point about the breed of cat or the fact it is someone's surname. Do we expunge that surname from the history books too? We are back to the argument regarding applying modern day sensibilities to the past and rewriting history books. I and many people believe that is a dangerous path to tread. My oen belief is words are words and only become offensive when used in a context where they are intended to cause offence. A bit simplistic but I can't be bothered to go into further detail of where and when that applies. Suffice to say that there are legitimate times when things do need to change but IMO this was not one of them.

 

It would probably need some cream with it.

 

Is a Maine Shag any better than Maine Coon?

We've got a couple of the large buggers, and the coon part is short for raccoon - which is a nickname of that animal species.

 

Why couldn't they show the full name so people get the context then?

 

I think you're arguing from a position of white privilege there. The fact that some of your possible market finds it offensive and have been saying so for years should be enough to rebrand surely?