September 29, 2009

Nasty Australian Yeast Pate Draws Fire For Stupid Name

by Balk posted @3:05 PM

iWasn'tThinkingAustralians are up in arms over the branding of a new version of the country's national snack, Vegemite—a disgusting spread made from the carcasses of diseased koalas. (Kidding! It's made from yeast extract, which is somehow actually much less appealing.) Kraft brought out a variety of Vegemite that contains cream cheese, which was not a big deal because clearly they'll eat anything over there on Prison Island. No, the real trouble came when the company attempted to "crowdsource" the name of the new concoction (as had been done with the original spread back in 1920).

More than 48,000 people responded to a call to come up with moniker for the new combination…. The winner, as coined by a Australian web developer who, by his own admission, has his tongue planted firmly in his cheek: iSnack 2.0.

The reaction, naturally, has been total mockery, including—of course—a Downfall parody.

AdAge sees a valuable lesson in the perils of crowdsourcing, but there's an equally valuable lesson in this story as well: Australians are far more concerned with what comes out of their mouths than what goes into them. Because, seriously, Vegemite? Ewww.

I do feel bad about the koalas though.

 
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34 Comments / Post a new comment

  1. Mary HK Choi [#1469]

    koalas are retarded. they only eat food they can't digest so they hershey squirt eucalyptus everywhere and smell awful. they need to go. don't feel bad for them. marsupials need to catch up and get placental anyhow. also, vegemite is way less gross than bovril which is properly disgusting.

  2. bumcakes [#1331]

    Mary, you forgot that a huge proportion of them have Chlamydia.

  3. Kois [#646]

    Not to mention that they are assholes who can't tip properly.

  4. HeyThatsMyBike [#500]

    Every time I stayed at a hostel in Europe, it was inevitably filled with a mix of Aussies and Americans. The vast majorities of Aussies traveled with a small container of vegemite, because they apparently couldn't live without it for the three weeks they were cruising through countries known for delicious food. They'd pull it our of their backpacks at meals and talk about how they'd smuggled it in and would all coo about how glad they were that they had it with them.
    They freaking LOVE yeast extract spread.

  5. slinkimalinki [#182]

    vegemite is delicious. that new stuff is for pussies and i intend to ignore it.

  6. Bored [#1111]

    Vegemite is an abomination, marmite is the true way ! Marmite and cucumber sandwiches, mmmmmmm

  7. Bored [#1111]

    Agreed, Bovril is foul. I remember making hot drinks out of it on camping trips. Do you remember Oxo (used to come in cubes, you mix it with water to make a brown and generally repulsive hot drink)

  8. MisterHippity [#46]

    Australia really is Prison Island. If you swim too far from shore, this big white ball comes bouncing across the water and swallows you.

  9. MisterHippity [#46]

    So Alex, the "I'mma let you finish" meme is old and lame now, but Downfall video parodies are still cool?

    Just checking. I'm trying really hard to keep up with this stuff.

  10. ChelseaLane [#1753]

    I grew up on vegemite and I still eat it on my toast today. You can make fun of Australians (I'm not actually from AU, I'm from New Zealand) for their horrible food- but, uhh, just take a minute to think about the origins of the likes of Baconnaise and Pancake wrapped Sausages. Just sayin'.

    I'll take Vegemite anyday.

  11. EvilMonkey [#1063]

    Vegemite (aka, Vegeshite) is, as Chuck Heston discovered, people. It's People! Well, almost. If you combine the soylent red and yellow with the green (that's the people one), you get Vegemite. Now, this iSnack 2.0 shit is VM plus Cheez Whiz, a truly disgusting substance made from the mamarian secretions of bovine mammals. Gack. Enjoy!

 

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