[blunderbuss]

Sainsbury's rebrands fish to spare blushes

Sainsbury's has rebranded a fish after shoppers said they were embarrassed to ask for it by name, it said Monday.

The humble pollack will be sold by the supermarket as "colin" -- pronounced "co-lan," and French for the closely-related hake -- with a limited edition in packaging inspired by abstract expressionist artist Jackson Pollock.

"It seems daft that pollack isn't more popular, particularly when it's readily available off our own coast, tastes great and is cheaper than cod," said designer Wayne Hemingway, founder of clothes company Red or Dead who designed the packaging. "Image really is everything; so to help colin stand out on-shelf we've used bold, bright colours and a design that is cheekily inspired by another well-known pollack."

To an English ear, "pollack" sounds unfortunately like a slang word for testicles, as well being close to two other words used as insults, one of them racist.

Sainsbury's environment manager Alison Austin said the rebranding initiative would also help protect dwindling stocks of other fish which are more typically eaten as part of Britain's famous fish and chips culture. "We want to help highlight that there are species to eat other than cod and haddock, which are just as tasty and often cheaper," she told the Guardian daily. "Many people have said that they can't even tell the difference in taste between cod or pollack, so we urge everyone to try 'colin and chips' on a Friday," she added. Fish is traditionally eaten on a Friday for reasons originally linked to Catholicism.

Sainsbury's said sales of pollack are tiny compared to those of more mainstream fish cod and haddock -- in March it sold just 3,947 units, compared to 52,904 of cod and 98,722 of haddock.


I'll have a couple of bits of Colin, please, and could you explain why I live in such a bloody stupid country...

[nicfit]

Never mind the Pollocks, buy Picasso.

That is, if you get the assonance between picasso and an italian slang word for penis.

[floatingslowly]

Originally Posted by blunderbuss

as well being close to two other words used as insults, one of them racist.

I have cataloged numerous species on yr planet; none of them are named pollack.

is it because it's a white fish?

[the ikara cult]

Is that pronounced

 

Or

 

Its just one more layer of beurocracy innit

[floatingslowly]

Or