​People Think The Old Yorkie Slogan Would Cause Uproar In 2018

You may have heard that Kleenex's 'Mansize' extra-large tissues have had to undergo a bit of a rebrand, following a barrage of complaints that said the product name was sexist.

Revealing the change, Kleenex tweeted: "We recently made changes to our Mansize branding and will now be labeled Extra Large, keep an eye out in shops."

As you might imagine, this harmless little tweet caused *quite* the uproar, with many people flocking to social media to condemn the 'nonsense' decision as 'PC crap'.

But some Twitter users were also reminded of a similar situation: the Yorkie bar... which isn't for girls, according to its slogan from a few years back.

Nestle

"Was a brilliant marketing move by Yorkie, knowing women will buy them to wave in blokes faces & blokes bought them to say 'this is MY chocolate'," one person wrote, adding: "Definitely wouldn't be done today."

Many others agreed, saying that the controversial marketing ploy wouldn't fly in 2018.

Someone tweeted: "Imagine if Nestle used the 'Its not for girls' slogan on the Yorkie in 2018. Would cause a bloody war!"

Another added: "Yay 2018! The year where you can't say shit without being called racist, homophobic, transphobic, sexist and so on... just stfu My generation was a good one, we laughed at the Yorkie bars that said not for girls... we didn't care that something said 'man size' either!"

A third wrote: "Anyone remember the advert for that chocolate "Yorkie, it's not for girls". They play that advert in this 2018 all hell will break loose."

One other Twitter user went a step further, urging Nestle to add fuel to the fire by tweeting: "Hi @Nestle with everything going on could you bring back 'Yorkie - it's not for girls?' Just want to see how it goes down. Thanks."

While the chocolate bar had been primarily aimed at men since its inception, it wasn't until around 2001 that the slogan 'It's not for girls' was introduced. In 2006, a tongue-in-cheek version wrapped in pink packaging was also launched - you know, for the ladies.

Many adverts centred on the slogan, with one featuring a stereotypical male lorry driver, and another a woman posing as a male builder to buy the chocolate bar.

Nestle eventually dropped the controversial slogan in around 2011, but many people still remember it.

Even just a couple of years back, a lot of people were hopping onto social media to say that they found the message inappropriate.

One said: "I'm not joking, Yorkie really did have a sexist advertisement for their chocolate bars."

Another added: "The most sexist thing in the world HAS to be a Yorkie bar."

Someone else posed: "Am I the only person who thinks Yorkie is a really sexist chocolate bar..."

What do you think? Was the Yorkie slogan a stroke of marketing genius, or something that's probably best left in the past?

Nestle has been approached for comment.

Topics: sexism, Food, News, UK

Jess Hardiman

Jess is a journalist at LADbible who graduated from Manchester University with a degree in Film Studies, English Language and Linguistics - indecisiveness at its finest, right there. She also works for FOODbible and its sister page Seitanists, which are both a safe haven for her to channel a love for homemade pasta, fennel and everything else in between. You can contact Jess at [email protected].

@Jess_Hardiman