Land of the lost brands

"We have worked together since Cif was Jif."

So said Victoria Wood when presenting an award to Julie Walters this week. It piqued my interest because I'd wondered why Jif was known as Cif here in the UK. According to Wikipedia, Unilever changed the name to "harmonise marketing and product inventories across the continent, though British advertisements stated that the change was made because Hispanics and France [sic] couldn't pronounce Jif". Problem is: Jif is a great name for a cleaning product that works quickly and efficiently and Cif isn't. And, as both one of my colleagues and Wikipedia point out, Cif sounds like an abbreviation for syphilis. In any case, the product used to be known as Vim in the UK, but the trend toward global advertising means that name - like so many other brands - is lost forever. One of the best examples in Britain is Marathon bars which became Snickers - and consequently the subject of lots of snickering (because it sounds like knickers, dunnit?).