25 years before the current controversy Dr Edward William Coon featured in this spot
With the controversy over the COON name change by current owner Saputo, this Australian TVC from 1995 could be of interest, as it uses its creator, Dr Edward William Coon, in the spot and song.
COON is the Australian trademark of a cheddar cheese produced by the Warrnambool Cheese and Butter company (WCB). It was first launched in 1935 by Fred Walker. Coon cheese is named after its American creator, Edward William Coon (1871–1934) of Philadelphia, who in 1926 patented a method, subsequently known as the Cooning process, for fast maturation of cheese via high temperature and humidity.
LD&D Foods (who also held a stake in the company) were the previous operator of the brand, until May 2015 when it was sold back to WCB which is majority-owned by Canadian dairy company Saputo Inc.
The product name, which it shares with a racial slur, was defended by previous manufacturers Kraft and Dairy Farmers despite decades-long campaigns to change it, including through challenges to the Australian Human Rights Commission in 1999 and Advertising Standards Bureau in 2001 by activist Stephen Hagan. Amid Australian involvement in 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, on 24 July Saputo Inc. announced the name would be changed.
The 1995 spot was created by Leo Burnett Melbourne and directed by Greg Desmond. Editor: Mike Reed; DoP: David Lewis (Spider); Set Designer: Gert Shidor.
16 Comments
So is this cooning process unique to this brand of cheese?
So once again left wing activists bend truth and the majority to their fundamentalist agenda.
Nothing to do with “Left Wing” Activists.
More to do with people that want to find offence wherever they look.
I’m offended by grocery products!!!
I love my Coon cheese but will cease to purchase it if they change the name.
So if they change it from a racial slur, you won’t buy it? Snowflake. Don’t be so uptight
Brad. Snowflake
It is named after the inventor of the process.
If you see that as a racial slur, you have a warped mindset.
Don’t try to rewrite historical facts.
Just rename it Boon. Though there is the unfortunate association with getting the runs.
I am so over these over sensitive people who take offence to the most stupid thing. They are the racist ones seeing something that’s not there they need to get a life. It’s ba ba black sheep not rainbow sheep so is the sheep gay cos it called a rainbow see what I mean just stupid shit leave well alone It’s called coon cheese whether it’s after a name or a process that’s all it is no undertone only a racist would make something from nothing. The world has bigger problems get your priorities rite. I reckon coon should keep it’s name…. best cheese ever 😀
Kelly,
While I wouldn’t put it the same way you have.
You are right on one thing.
Indigenous racism is dictating these stupid changes.
A wee bit of history for thoes who have a problem with the colour of Their Skin. this snippit of the ‘Coon family,Please DO read on :-The rugged west coast of Scotland and the desolate Hebrides islands are the ancestral home of the Coon family. Their name indicates that the original bearer lived at Cunningham in Ayrshire. However, numerous branches of the Cunningham family spread all over Scotland. Two of the most prominent branches of the Cunningham Clan, the Cunninghams of Corsehill and the Cunninghams of Caprington, trace their ancestry back to the medieval era.
The process of making a certain is a patent ed brand of 1935.the original ‘old method ‘ by ‘a mr Coon’, Was a couple of hundred years ago…..
Pedro.
Unfortunately your ‘contribution ‘ is Fake Facts”.
Coon cheese is about to lose a ton of customers after giving in to minority groups in a classic example of PC gone mad. I will no longer support this product. By giving in to these pathetic activists shows you are part of the problem, not part of the solution!!!
My God what a joke. Mr Coon had an unfortunate name so just imagine his life as a boy growing up. Not to mention his father passed on that name to him ands his father before him and so on. At what point does this stop. Can I still buy a “little black dress” does someone’s surname need to be changed because it’s Mr Black or Cooney? Theses are legitimate names. The naming of the cheese was named after the man not a racial slur. Get over this fact and put things in perspective. Not everything is about race or belief. Life can be a bit more simple just like Coon Cheese….because it’s just cheese not a race. If it was a slur on race then I would support the race …..but it’s not.
You’re all idiots, it’s the same cheese, deal with it pussies