Shitstorm against Bahlsen: After racism allegations, the Keks group thinks of changing the product name

The biscuit manufacturer Bahlsen is currently struggling with racism allegations. Now the company announces a reaction that leads to conflict.

• The Bahlsen company has to fight again with a big shit storm
• The biscuit group is currently fighting racism allegations
• Now the waffle biscuit " Africa " should be renamed for image reasons

Hanover - Valentine's Day is actually a day of love and affection. But not for the Bahlsen biscuit company . This tried to bring a little love into the world with an Instagram post that day, but what came back was just hatred and serious accusations of racism .
The Instagram photo showed the popular chocolate biscuit variety " Africa " with a pink post-it saying "Because you sweeten me every day ...". However, the users did not find it "cute" at all. With the hashtag # Everyday Racism, one user commented "A brown biscuit that is called Africa? For Real? ”Under the post. The community quickly agreed: the name doesn't work.

Racism allegations lead to the renaming of the "Africa" ​​biscuit

At first the company tried to defend itself. Bahlsen wrote on Instagram that the chocolate chip cookie name had been around for 60 years and "then as now we were more than distant of racist ideas." But that didn't calm the crowd. The agitation was also fueled by the comment from Henning May, band member of AnnenMayKantereit: “@bahlsen instead of just reading the same text, just go into it and consider whether all of this is correct. It's not that difficult and not that bad. ”The biscuit company then deleted its statement again and met the critics in a new posting:

Check out this post on Instagram

[EDIT] Many of you have dealt intensively with our product name Bahlsen Africa and commented here. We take your opinions and criticism very seriously. We distance ourselves from racism and discrimination in all forms. We have read different opinions from your comments. Some associate the product name with racism, while others cannot understand the discussion about the product name and find that this pigeonholing encourages racism. We launched this product 60 years ago and then, as now, racist ideas were more than remote. In order to avoid that our product creates associations with racism, we are already working on a renaming.

A post shared by Bahlsen (@bahlsen) on Feb 14, 2020 at 2:00 PST

But the proposal for reconciliation went in the wrong direction. Now there is criticism from other sides.

The Bahlsen shit storm never ends, the biscuit name should remain

After the company announced that it would rename the chocolate chip cookie, other users spoke up. One user commented, "If you have weaknesses against such brain-sharp statements, you don't have to buy from them anymore" and one user added ironically: "Well, I'm in favor of this - representing the demographics in Africa - also partly white and in offer the biscuits in different shades of brown. In addition, 50/50 holes each to still serve the feminists and hooked representatively for the physically disadvantaged. Then a few damn dry ones and others like they were drowned. Foolish idiots as if there was nothing more important - the main thing is to get upset. "

That's only available from us. If you think of racism, you already have a mistake behind the frontal lobes. #bahlsen https://t.co/R8nuW7eoxL

The biscuit company apparently can't please biscuit eaters. Some call for the name to be changed because the name “ Africa ” is racist for a chocolate chip cookie and believe that Bahlsen's reasoning for the name is out of date. This reads: "The name Africa was chosen because Africa is the largest producer of cocoa beans in the world and the name therefore fits perfectly with our fully chocolate-coated waffles." The other part accuses Bahlsen that the company shows no support and demands that the biscuit name remains.

Not the first shit storm for the biscuit company Bahlsen

The accusation of racism is not the first shit storm the biscuit company has to defend itself against. Bahlsen was already heavily criticized last year. Back then, the problem was not the biscuit name, but the statement by the corporate heiress Verena Bahlsen. The company's long history not only has advantages for the biscuit company's image.

Bahlsen responded to the current criticism, which creates a lot of conflict, as follows: "Many of you have dealt intensively with our product name Bahlsen Africa and commented here. We take your opinions and criticism very seriously. We distance ourselves from racism and discrimination in all forms. We have read different opinions from your comments. Some associate the product name with racism, while others cannot understand the discussion about the product name and find that this pigeonholing encourages racism. We launched this product 60 years ago and then, as now, racist ideas were more than remote. In order to avoid that our product creates associations with racism, we are already working on a renaming. ”

What do you think of the name debate?

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List of rubric lists: © dpa / Holger Hollemann