FRANKIE DeGROOT | Local News | Contact
Australian food manufacturer Uncle Tobys will be forced to rebrand it’s popular ‘Le Snak’ snack product after admitting the product was not actually manufactured in the Snak region of France at all.
The product, which combines okayish crackers and delicious goo which bears a faint resemblance to cheese, was released in 1988 and was given a French-sounding name, a branding move which was popular at the time.
This trend is evidenced by other products released at the same time such as Le Tan; a brand of sunscreen, and Lemons; a popular citrus fruit.
Interestingly, the name actually translates to “The Snak” in French, but it is this French connection that has forced the impending rebrand.
Under international trademark law, the only snack products allowed to carry the Snak name or branding are those manufactured in the Snak region of France, a country which is a laughable 1/14th the size of Australia.
The decision brings back memories of the rebranding of many “Champagne” products as ‘sparkling wine’ if they did not originate from France’s Champagne (pronounced cham-pag-nee) region, which was necessitated after Australia’s 2001 accession to the Madrid Protocol, whatever that means.
An Uncle Tobys spokesuncle, Toby, said the new name had not been chosen yet, although a shortlist is being constructed.
“Yeah, we’ve had a bit of a brainstorm. We were leaning towards ‘The Snack’ but we weren’t sure if consumers would make the connection. For a while we were going with ‘What The Hell You Can’t Just Lick The Cheese Out You Have To Eat The Crackers Too’ but it would take too long to say in a 30 second commercial. We’ll probably go with ‘Le Trois Craquelins et le Fromage’, as soon as we can get it to fit on the packaging”.
