Kraft Foods in Australia has decided to change the name of its new Vegemite-and-cream-cheese product after the recent uproar over the new name iSnack 2.0. The company originally crowdsourced the name by asking more than 48,000 people to submit a name for the product online. An Australian web developer submitted the hokey, 2001-esque name “iSnack 2.0” as a joke, and lo and behold, it won! The original Vegemite name was chosen through a similar competition in the 1920s, although snarky web developers didn’t exist back then.
I’m not even going to delve into the question of the actual product — every time my Aussie boyfriend makes a Vegemite and toasted cheese sandwich, the aroma alone makes me nauseous! The Awl suggests it may be made “from the carcasses of diseased koalas,” which is actually entirely plausible. The company decided to create the new cream cheese hybrid spread after finding that people spread about 13 grams of the creamier Vegemite on a piece of toast, versus five grams of the traditional version. All I have to say is, thank goodness they don’t sell The Spread Formerly Known As iSnack 2.0 in the States!
—Alyssa




















