Sydney Beveridge
Get your Country out of my Happy Meal!: Liberty cabbage, Freedom fries and other Product Renamings
by Sydney Beveridge - July 14, 2008 - 11:39 AM

a.fries.jpgPolitical battles can dictate what we call our food and friends, and even what games we play. During WWI, sauerkraut was popularly rebranded Liberty Cabbage. When anti-French sentiments began to build a few years ago, “French Fries” were rechristened “Freedom Fries.” (Nevermind that Thomas Jefferson may have been the one to first rave about the delicious side item in the U.S.). And while most patriotic terms fade, places like Berlin, Iowa, and Germantown, Nebraska, have ended up permanently renamed. Here are a few other examples of reactionary vocab rebranding efforts from all over the globe.

1. Food

Picture 15.pngTHE KIWI: The iconic fruit of New Zealand was originally known as a Chinese Gooseberry. When the country exported the fruits to the US starting in the 1950s, marketers referred to them as a melonettes to avoid evoking the Cold War conflict between China and the US. The name was later changed again to Kiwifruit came to avoid tariffs on melons and berries and to honor the country’s national bird, the Kiwi.

KIWI LOAVES: In 1998, New Zealand bakers were irritated by threats of French nuclear testing in the Pacific Ocean. So they took matters into their own hands by renaming French bread as Kiwi bread. The action received little attention compared to the Freedom fry movement here in the states.

FRENCH VANILLA: Of course, now that the Star Spangled Ice Cream company has renamed its ice cream from “I Hate the French Vanilla” to “Air Force ‘Plane’ Vanilla,” the recent anti-French sentiments may have left US kitchens, for now.

ROSES OF MUHAMMAD: After the 2006 controversy over Danish cartoons depicting Muslims, the Iranian Confectioner’s Union changed the names of Danish pastries to “Roses of the Prophet Muhammad.”

2. Drinks


BOURBON: To wash down the sweet taste of independence, Americans began drinking Bourbon—a Whisky first brewed in the US in 1789. Rev. Elijah Craig rebuked the UK origins of the drink, naming it after Bourbon County, Kentucky.

a.mecca.jpgMECCA COLA: In 2002, Muslims asserted their beverage independence too. A Muslim-run company introduced Mecca Cola as an alternative to Coca Cola. The manufacturers imitated the Coca Cola flavor and packaged it with a red label and white script. Arab boycotts of American brands boosted the cola’s sales.

3. Games

CARDS TAKE A HIT: In 1917, the city of Syracuse made a statement against WWI by banning a card game. They prohibited Pinochle because of game’s German origins (it came from the game “Binokel”).

21: American Black Jack has roots in Europe, but went through a few name changes before settling on that name. First, it was a popular French casino game in the 1700s called “Vingt-et-Un” (“Twenty One”). The British liked to play it too, but with the French and Indian War going on, they decided to rename it “Pontoon.”

Animals

a.alsatian.jpg4. GERMAN DOGS: Your furry four-footer is man’s best friend. But that love might be conditional if the breed’s name evokes a particular enemy country. Instead of German Shepherds and Dachsunds, owners in countries around the world doted on their Alsatians and Liberty Pups.

5. Illness

EVEN OUR SICKNESS GETS A NAME CHANGE? During WWI, a Massachusetts doctor decided to combat the German invaders, specifically German Measles. The new “Liberty Measles” had all the same symptoms, plus a little extra patriotism. Newspapers used the new term for decades.

6. Education

HOW KINDERGARTEN ALMOST GOT CHANGED: New Jersey teacher Katherine T. Cassell published an article “Wartime German at Junior High” in the 1945 German Quarterly. She wrote about her students’ experience in the classroom and the anti-German frenzy taking place in the public. Her students learned military-related German words that year, and started dropping “ersatz” into conversations.

Students discussed public calls for banning German words, boycotting German music and language studies, and even forbidding “Frankfurters.”

In response to the proposal to change the school term “Kindergarten” to something less German, one eighth grader said “that it would be just as sensible to destroy the Brooklyn Bridge, just because it was designed by a German.” Another student added that they would also have to get rid of Diesel engines and German contributions to science and medicine.

The term “Kindergarten” survived, but are there any other renamings you remember?
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Comments (28)

  1. I used to visit Wilmington North Carolina a lot and we’d always pass by Cubbies, a restaurant which was the alleged home of “freedom fries”. Its funny though, for such a big fuss, the name french fries doesn’t even mean from France, it means frenched as in cut into strips. Thats why people don’t capitalize the “F”.

    posted by Josiah on 7-14-2008 at 11:52 am

  2. In the middle of the 50s the Cincinnati Reds changed their name to the Redlegs to avoid being associated with Communists

    posted by Eli on 7-14-2008 at 11:58 am

  3. French toast, french bread, french kiss.

    posted by Codius on 7-14-2008 at 11:58 am

  4. Yeah, they came out with “W” ketchup, like George “W” Bush because his opponent John Kerry’s wife was Teresa Heinz of the Heinz ketchup family.

    The website is wketchup dot com

    posted by Dave on 7-14-2008 at 11:59 am

  5. It’s kinda sad, astonishingly lame in fact, that some people are so afraid of mere words. Nationalism is so 20th century.

    posted by Johnny Cat on 7-14-2008 at 12:21 pm

  6. In Oklahoma, the town of Korn was changed to “Corn” during WWII due to anti-German sentiment.

    posted by Holliann on 7-14-2008 at 12:39 pm

  7. Wow, unlike those crappy German Measles, “Liberty Measles” sound cool. I wonder were I can get some.

    posted by Florida on 7-14-2008 at 12:48 pm

  8. I don’t remember where I heard this, but I think the term “French kiss” was actually made up by the English, meaning that only French were dirty enough to put their tongues where they didn’t belong.

    posted by Miss V on 7-14-2008 at 1:36 pm

  9. Just slap the word “Liberty” or “Freedom” on something and conservatives will eat it up like a star spangled pudding snack.

    posted by McCobb on 7-14-2008 at 3:26 pm

  10. Just write an article related in the loosest way to politics and liberals will pontificate about the correctness of their viewpoint with the reliability of the sunrise.

    posted by kate on 7-14-2008 at 3:43 pm

  11. My town of New Berlin, WI pronounces it New BERlin. The official pronunciation was changed during WWII to avoid being associated with BerLIN Germany. My dad likes to pronounce it the German way, just to be unique…really he just sounds dorky.

    posted by Liz on 7-14-2008 at 3:52 pm

  12. @ Kate,

    How sanctimonious! Do you think the renaming of the food product in the first place isn’t expressing a “viewpoint?”

    I guess we just decided to rename fries as “freedom fries” for no particular reason. Certainly not expressing an anti-french viewpoint there. Anyone who would consider “I hate the French Vanilla” to convey the actual viewpoint that “I hate the French” is a liberal idiot who is simply taking the phrase out of context.

    posted by Florida on 7-14-2008 at 5:09 pm

  13. Kitchener, Ontario used to be New Berlin but was changed because of anti-German sentiments. At least they maintained Oktoberfest…!

    posted by ac on 7-14-2008 at 5:28 pm

  14. @Florida

    Not to get into a online argument which is silly and pointless, but to clarify my comment which was obviously misunderstood. I was merely commenting on the inevitability of McCobb’s comment. I enjoy this site’s commitment to staying away from political commentary (plenty of other places for partisanship on the internet) and really appreciate their ability to stay out of the political fray and write interesting stories (sometimes even about politics or politicians!) without resorting to cheap partisan editorial comments for readership. My comment was merely a response of annoyance (probably, in retrospect, ill-judged and ultimately useless) to commenters who seize every quasi-political story to take a cheap shot at “the other side”. My purpose was not to endorse or condemn the “viewpoint” expressed by those renaming products/towns.

    posted by kate on 7-15-2008 at 8:32 am

  15. I couldn’t get through this without saying, “We had to use the word dickety because the Kaiser stole the word twenty.”

    posted by Lynn on 7-15-2008 at 8:46 am

  16. Also the town of Swastika, Ontario. During WWII the Ontario government tried to change the name to Winston, but the people of the town insisted they had been using the symbol long before Hitler did.

    posted by Blitzen on 7-15-2008 at 9:03 am

  17. Who can forget Liberty Cabbage? (That’s sauerkraut for you Hun-lovers out there.) I still use that term on occasion. I’d use it more, but most people don’t know what I’m talking about.

    posted by Jim on 7-15-2008 at 10:06 am

  18. agh, Josiah you stole my thunder! French fries originated in Belgium, but we wouldn’t let that stop us from propagating the stereotype that Americans are ill-informed and temperamental.

    posted by Jonathan on 7-15-2008 at 11:14 am

  19. Prof. Reka Benczes (of the American Studies Department at Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest) who has studied these kinds of linguistic matters pointed out that “french fries” didn’t just become “American fries,” but rather “freedom fries.” (not just erasing the word “French” but injecting more meaning into the metaphor for the fried potatoes)

    Also, towns and streets across the globe have been renamed during and after wartime.

    posted by Sydney on 7-15-2008 at 11:29 am

  20. There’s a lot.

    Like Coon Chicken Inn changing to Cook’s Chicken. There are so many more, but I don’t feel like revitalizing Black Americana.

    Also, in LA County there are parts where they changed Compton Blvd, to Marine.

    posted by Kristyn on 7-15-2008 at 3:28 pm

  21. oooh… star spangled pudding snacks! Where can I get those?

    posted by phineas on 7-18-2008 at 8:47 am

  22. @kate:

    Protip – stating you ‘don’t want to get into an online arguument’ whilst using the word ‘merely’ a lot and telling your internet opponent they ‘clearly misunderstood’ your intent (when your intent was to make a vague accusation at other commenters) just makes you sound like an online douchebag.

    posted by NerdFury on 7-18-2008 at 4:39 pm

  23. I love how the “religion of peace” can’t even handle drinking Coca Cola. The religion of perpetual outrage is more like it.

    posted by Lisa on 7-18-2008 at 5:10 pm

  24. Sorry, Eli, but “The Redlegs” was the original official name of the Cincinnati Reds, dating back to the 19th Century. The original franchise later relocated to Boston, becoming the Red Sox.

    posted by Richard on 7-25-2008 at 11:17 am

  25. Those students definetly had the right sense as far as talking about renaming stuff.

    Now if our politicians could think as rationally and logically……

    posted by smjjames on 3-31-2011 at 9:57 am

  26. Richard’s a little off on his cincinnati Reds trivia. For anyone who cares:

    The franchise started off as the Redstockings. The original franchise desolved, and some of their best players moved to Boston in 1870 and became the Boston Redstockings. This team became the Beaneaters and then the Braves (now the Atlanta Braves). A second then third Redstockings franchise started in 1876 and 1882 Respectively. The 1882 Redstockings became the Reds eventually. The change to Redlegs was made in the 1950s as a reaction to the cold war, to avoid suspicion that they were tied to communism.

    http://keymancollectibles.com/pinsbuttons/redlegspin.htm

    posted by BD on 3-31-2011 at 2:42 pm

  27. I would like to see ranch dressing called ‘Merica Sauce.

    posted by illyjoel on 3-31-2011 at 7:38 pm

  28. @Kristyn

    While Coon’s Chicken Inn was a real place, complete with the giant minstrel entrance, the story of it becoming Cook’s Chicken was made up for the movie Ghost World. The real Coon’s Chicken Inn closed down when the owners realized that racial sentiments were changing.

    posted by Endless Mike on 4-3-2011 at 12:15 am

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