Eskimo Pie is no more, to be re-branded due to concerns of racial insensitivity

A 98-year-old frozen treat has joined the list of well-known brands which is altering its name due to cultural concerns. Eskimo Pie is no more, joining both Aunt Jemima products and Uncle Ben’s rice, also to be immediately rebranded and updated due to concerns of racial sensitivity.

“We are committed to being a part of the solution on racial equality, and recognize the term is derogatory,” Elizabell Marquez, head of marketing for parent company Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream, told Reuters, Wall Street Journal and other news organizations in a statement.

Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream, which owns the Eskimo Pie brand, has been concerned about the name for some time, according to Reuters.

The corporation’s decision to remake the treat’s image garnered considerable media coverage, making headlines on CNN, Rolling Stone, New York Post, USA Today and The Wall Street Journal.

“The term Eskimo is a disparaging term for the indigenous people of the Arctic regions of northern Canada, Alaska, Greenland and Siberia,” the Journal said.

The original Eskimo Pie was patented in 1922, originally called the “I-Scream Bar” by inventor Christian Kent Nelson, who wanted to provide ice cream which was easy to hold and portable.

Concerns of the name surfaced in earnest about three years ago.

“The new name and the images that came with it were meant to evoke the chilly north and the indigenous people who lived there, but it traded heavily on a stereotype. Although there has been little public pushback to the Eskimo Pie in the way there has been to the Washington Redskins, at least one woman, who was of Inuk heritage, has said that the name is offensive,” noted Smithsonian Magazine, in a historical overview of the product published in 2017.