No More 'i' This and '2.0' That

In Australia, Vegemite, a dark brown sandwich spread with a salty and bitter taste made from used brewers yeast extract, has an iconic status and brand recognition that any company would lust after. It's loved by Aussies with the kind of passion they have for rugby.

This summer, Kraft, which owns Vegemite, planned to introduce a Vegemite spin-off that combined the delicacy with cream cheese. It held a national contest to name the new concoction and selected a moniker in July for the humble food product that tried to ride both the iPhone and Web 2.0 buzz: iSnack 2.0.

Really.

Simon Talbot, the Kraft foods spokesman in Australia, said in a statement, which could be viewed as a tour de farce, that the "name Vegemite iSnack2.0 was chosen based on its personal call to action, relevance to snacking and clear identification of a new and different Vegemite to the original. We believe these three components completely encapsulate the new brand."

Huh?

Aussies, not shy folks, blasted Kraft in both 1.0 and 2.0 media. Helen Razer, a columnist for The Age, an Australian newspaper, truly skewered the stupidity of the new Vegemite name:

The label is every bit as hip as a polka convention and every bit as convincingly ''now'' as parachute pants. Further, aligning a breakfast spread with a portable media device makes as much sense as employing a bikini model to sell cabbage.

Aussies bashed the new name on Twitter, a real 2.0 outfit, which so far has wisely decided not to change its name to Cheez Whiz, while someone started a real send-up of a blog called "Names That Are Better Than iSnack 2.0," including my personal favorite, "Betamaximite."

Faced with an unrelenting barrage of bad publicity, Kraft Australia gave up on the new name in September, when a somewhat chastened Talbot said, "The new name has simply not resonated with Australians. Particularly the modern technical aspects associated with it."

The company this month decided to call the Vegemite cream cheese combo "Cheeseybite," which also is awfully close to the Cheesy Bite name for pizza trademarked by Pizza Hit in 2006.

The lesson from our cousins down under is that we have more than passed the time when it was cool to hang the "i" thing and the 2.0 thing on every new product that comes down the pike, and I, for one, am happy to remain plain old Bob 1.0.