It has been a kitchen cupboard staple in British homes for more than 150 years.
But now Lyle’s Golden Syrup – the go-to ingredient of homemaking – appears to be the latest product to fall victim to woke.
The sugary treat’s American makers have changed its iconic labelling – an image of a dead lion swarmed by bees – because it is offensive to youngsters.
Eagle-eyed shoppers noticed the logo and its biblical quotation “Out of the strong came forth sweetness” has been sanitised and replaced by a modern rebrand.
For decades tins featured a picture of the rotting carcass of a lion with a swarm of bees. The slogan, chosen by Abram Lyle, is a reference to the Biblical story in the Book of Judge in which Samson was travelling to the land of the Philistines in search of a wife. During the journey he killed a lion, and when he passed the same spot on his return he noticed a swarm of bees had formed a comb of honey in the carcass. Samson later turned this into a riddle at a wedding: “Out of the eater came forth meat and out of the strong came forth sweetness.”
It became the basis for the slogan slapped on tins of the sweet treat, made at the Tate & Lyle syrup refinery at Plaistow Wharf, East London, in what was the world’s longest unchanged brand packaging.
A new logo, simply the face of a lion, now appears on squeezy bottles.
Robert Bargery, of the Royal Fine Art Commission Trust, said: “A successful brand with a solid reputation probably has more to lose than gain by going for a new logo.
“The redrawn lion is so stylised as to lack clarity at first glance, whereas the old lion is clearly a lion: it is what it looks like on the tin.
“But who knows, Golden Syrup may soon be as stigmatised as cigarettes, so the lively re-brand of a dead lion may excite a sugar-rush among the avocado-on-toast generation.”
Golden Syrup’s green and gold packaging has remained unchanged since the popular product first launched in 1881.
