ISIS chocolate company forced into second re-brand

A Belgian chocolate company that rebranded as ISIS last year has been forced to change its name again and apply for a new trademark following “international negative associations”.

ISIS changed its name to Libeert, the family name of the company’s owners, after consumers claimed they associated it with the ISIS jihadist group currently fighting in Syria and Iraq.

Brussels-based ISIS was previously called Italo Suisse but decided to change its name because it no longer had a direct affiliation with either Italy or Switzerland.

It renamed itself ISIS, also the name of one of its praline brands, at the end of last year.

But, following the rise this summer of ISIS, which stands for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, the chocolate maker began noticing a negative reaction.

"We had international customers saying that they could no longer stock our chocolate as consumers had only negative associations with the name," marketing manager Desiree Libeert told Reuters.

“Had we known there was a terrorist organisation with the same name, we would have never chosen that,” Libeert added.

It is not the first time that an entity has been forced to change its name due to an association with ISIS.

Earlier this month, according to the Inquisitr news website, the US TV series Archer had to drop the word ISIS—which stood for “International Secret Intelligence Service”—from the show despite the term predating the terrorist organisation by five years.

Italo Suisse, formed in 1923, chose its name because its founder learned his trade in Italy and Switzerland.