The news that Kraft, makers of the Oreo so inexplicably beloved by my children, had decided to re-christen its snack food group “Mondelēz International” when it separates the segment from its US supermarket business. This got me thinking about names and the point or power therein.
My first reaction upon reading the word “Mondelēz” was to make a face, roll my eyes and think “ridiculous.” What’s with that accent (it makes a long eee)? It is pretentious and fake. No one will remember it. No one will know how to pronounce it. No one will care that it is a hybrid of Latin words that mean “delicious world.” This is clearly a case of a company over-thinking itself.
Yet who am I to talk?







Vanessa has been the FT’s fashion editor since 2003, and is based in New York, though she lived in London for 12 years.