FILE PHOTO: The Unilever logo will be seen at the headquarters in Rotterdam, the Netherlands 21 August 2018. REUTERS / Piroschka van de Wouw
BERLIN (Reuters) – Unilever’s (ULVR.LGerman food company Knorr will rename the popular “Gypsy” – as a gypsy – sauce as Hungarian-style paprika sauce after complaints that the name is offensive, becoming the latest brand to shift to a wave of protests over racism.
The death in police custody of African-American George Floyd has caused a fundamental uproar over racism around the world, causing brands to see names as detrimental such as Eskimo Pie ice cream and Aunt Jemima’s pancake mix.
Unilever said in June that the word “fair” would be dropped from its Fair & Lovely skin lightening products.
Romani Rose, head of the German Council of Sinti and Roma, welcomed the move, reported by the newspaper Bild am Sonntag, although he said he was more concerned about growing racism, such as shouting at ‘gypsies’ or ‘Jews’ in football stadiums . .
“It’s good that Knorr is responding to the complaints of a lot of people,” he told the newspaper. “But ‘gypsy schnitzel’ and ‘gypsy sauce’ are not the most important things.”
Unilever was not immediately available for comment.
The Nazis subjected Sinti – the name used for centuries in Germany to Germany – to forced sterilization under laws on ‘racial purity’ and Roma were deported to death camps, where they wore uniforms with a ‘Z’ for ‘Gypsy’.
Report by Emma Thomasson; Edited by Toby Chopra
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