Last year, Belgian chocolate manufacturer Italo Suisse, realizing that they no longer had any connection to either Italy or Switzerland, decided to change their name to something more meaningful. In one of the most poorly-timed moves in corporate history, the name they chose was ISIS. For reasons that should be abundantly clear, they are being forced to change their name again, Reuters is reporting .
According to the ISIS website (the chocolate manufacturer, that is, not the jihadist organization), they were originally called “Zwitsers-Italiaanse Specialiteiten” (Swiss-Italian Specialties), referencing the rich traditions of chocolate-making in Italy and Switzerland, where the company’s founder learned the chocolate-making trade. Over the decades, however, the Belgian-based firm lost its connection to Italy and Switzerland and went with the name ISIS, long before it meant anything outside of the dessert industry.
ISIS spokesperson Desiree Libeert told Reuters that the name ISIS came with the best of intentions.
“We chose ISIS as that was the brand name of our pralines and tablets. Had we known there was a terrorist organization with the same name, we would have never chosen that.”
Unfortunately the name ISIS was hijacked by Islamist terrorists who likely had never eaten the Belgian chocolate in their lives and equally likely didn’t care that they were infringing on a trademark. And retailers weren’t interested in selling a product that had, even unintentionally, an association with a terrorist group.
“We had international customers saying that they could no longer stock our chocolate as consumers had only negative associations with the name.”
For what it’s worth, ISIS (the terrorist organization) “officially” changed their name to just IS (“Islamic State”) a few months ago, but for the chocolate manufacturer the damage has already been done.
This is not the first time that ISIS (the terrorist organization) has forced an entity named ISIS to change its name. Earlier this month, according to this Inquisitr report, the FX series Archer had to drop the word “ISIS” — “International Secret Intelligence Service,” which predated the terrorist organization by five years — from the show.
As for ISIS the Belgian chocolate manufacturer, their new name will be that of the family that owns it: “Libeert,” which as of this post is not a name known to belong to any terrorist organizations.
[Image courtesy of: Chocablog ]
