Friday 14 January 2022

"Midget Gems change name after academic's campaign"

From the BBC:

Marks & Spencer has changed the name of its Midget Gems sweets to avoid misleading geology students after a campaign by a Liverpool academic.

Dr Erin Pritchard, a lecturer in geology at Liverpool Hope University, argued the word "gem" was highly misleading as the sweets are clearly not a precious or semi-precious stone, especially when cut and polished or engraved.

M&S has now rebranded the popular treats as Midget Jellies. A spokeswoman said the store was "committed to being a scientifically accurate retailer".

7 comments:

A K Haart said...

Ha ha - very good.

Bayard said...

Boo to M&S for caving so easily. A glance at a decent dictionary would have told them that both sweets and small people are named after the small biting insect that makes Scotland such a pleasant place to be in the summer.

Lola said...

Whatabout the class of motor racing called Midget Racing....

Mark Wadsworth said...

AKH, ta.

B, most people refer to them as midges without the t.

L, the sweets were renamed Mini Gems, so the MGB Midget will no doubt be renamed MGB Mini. No possibility for confusion there.

Scrobs. said...

You'd rather hope that if kids have got as far as a uni place, they may just have learned that sweeties aren't the same as diamonds or emeralds etc...

I remember discussing how diamonds were formed with a school chum in the 1950s, when I was about 9 years old!

James Higham said...

Dwarf gems?

Mark Wadsworth said...

S, and you'd hope people can tell satire from real life, although it's becoming more difficult nowadays.

JH, nice one.