Nutella label
Nutella labelpixabay

Chocolate spread Nutella, popular among kids and adults alike, recently began a new marketing campaign: A personalized label that allows children to have their name grace the jar of their favorite treat. But an Australian woman is up in arms over what she said was the company's discrimination, refusing to allow her to purchase five personalized jars with the name of her niece – Isis.

Nutella's “Make Me Yours” campaign, which launched in Australia in September, has seen thousands of jars of the chocolate spread with a large variety of names of all types. But Isis, along with her brother Odhinn, could not be printed on the labels, the woman was told, after the name came up on a list of terms that the store was not permitted to print.

According to the woman, the name Isis has nothing to do with the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, which is often termed ISIS or ISIL in the English-language media, but after an Egyptian goddess. When the girl was born eight years ago, the current use of the term ISIS had not yet come into existence.

In a statement, Ferrero, the makers of Nutella, wrote that “the aim of the campaign is to give fans of Nutella the chance to personalize their favorite hazelnut spread in a fun and joyful way. Like all campaigns, there needs to be consistency in the way terms and conditions are applied. Unfortunately, this has meant there have been occasions where a label has not been approved on the basis that it could have been misinterpreted by the broader community or viewed as inappropriate.”

Numerous other terms, most of them scatological, have been banned as well.