I'll be honest, I never noticed the lion was dead.
this post was submitted on 20 Feb 2024
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I remember my mum telling me it was sleeping when I asked if it was dead. I doubted it and it led to discussions with my sisters and cousins. We would all look at the tin at my grandma's house. Happy, simple times
Me neither. And now I can't see how I missed it.
Yeah, it seems like the kind of thing I'd have noticed.
On one hand, it’s more inclusive, and better in line with a society that’s considerably less normatively Christian than in the Victorian era.
OTOH, a quaint piece of weirdness has been replaced with something a lot more generic and anodyne. (And a brand of syrup having a decomposing lion carcass on the packaging was one of the things that makes you go WTF‽)
I never knew it was a festering dead lion. Seems to me that the marketing department is looking for something to do.
I imagine the branding consultants made a pretty penny that day.
Well this latest cultural storm in a teacup has got people talking about Golden Syrup, so I suppose their marketing department is doing its job fairly well.
it is banging on a steamed pud tbf
When I’m shopping, I definitely look closely at the quote on the can, then look it up, and decide not to buy syrup because it turns out to be a bible verse…
All it takes is a social media message to around a particular religious community who object and bam. There go substantial sales, I guess.
You and I may not care. Others might
That's fair.
Who in their right mind would, though? Samson seems to be revered in Christianity and Judaism and is also regarded in some Islamic writings (I don't think a Samson reference would be enough to turn away Muslims, due to them respecting most Old Testament figures) and Hinduism kind of views all religions as the same/similar thing.
Personally I don't care, as long as I know what it is and the syrup inside remains the same.
It's quite worrying that the link to religious belief may place it in an exclusionary space. I wouldn't avoid halal slaughtered meat due to it's link to religious belief in the same way that wouldn't factor in to my choice of syrup.
Could avoid halal due to animal rights views though
That is fascinating I never knew syrup came from dead lions. I wonder if you can get vegan syrup.
They probably wouldn't enjoy the extraction process.
It's a reference to Samson in Judges 14:8-9
The owner supported Brexit so I don't buy it anyway.
If that's true, that's sad, but I might have to switch my syrup supplier.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The image of a dead lion being swarmed by bees is to be dropped from some of Lyle's Golden Syrup packaging.
A rebranded image of a lion's head with a single bee will feature on products, including the firm's plastic syrup and dessert bottles.
But the classic Lyle's Golden Syrup tin will be excluded from the rebrand, keeping its more than 150-year-old packaging design.
According to the company's website, Lyle had strong religious views, which is why the logo depicts the story of Samson from the Old Testament, in which Samson killed an attacking lion, and later noticed a swarm of bees had formed a comb of honey in the carcass.
Helen Edwards, adjunct associate professor of marketing at London Business School, said the rebrand would help to reduce the risk of excluding potential buyers.
"The story of it coming from religious belief could put the brand in an exclusionary space, especially if it was to go viral on X or TikTok," she told the BBC.
The original article contains 419 words, the summary contains 166 words. Saved 60%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
The dead lion logo does make me feel like they're saying, this syrup is made from the excretions of dead animals. It's just weird! The new design is much better in my view, and much more enticing to me as a consumer.
It's a reference to Samson in Judges 14:8-9
Only in the UK would they think that makes an appopriate logo for a food stuff - or maybe in some corners of the US also. Religious folk are definitely very strange people.
Atheists are weirder tbh
I'm an atheist myself and can't dispute that I'm a weird person, but I have my reasons for my beliefs that are just as sound as anyone's reasons for being religious. Moreso, because I've seen what is out there, and I know (more than anyone else) that there is no such thing as 'God' at all. And there doesn't need to be. But, to each his own.
Exactly. I've seen what I've seen and known what I know and done my research and came to the realisation that there is a God.
Anyway, if the Bible isn't real, how would having a famous story about Samson be any different to having a logo based on little red riding hood? Or the fact that "Goliath" in our society is basically a synonym for "large"
And that's fine if it works for you, but I hate to say it (and it won't matter anyway) but - there really is not a god of any kind at all. Even if I wanted to believe in one, I now know for certain there isn't any such thing, at least not by the definition humans use for what a 'god' is.
The bible is real, it's a real book - a work of fiction, but a real book. It has some interesting passages in it, but I don't consider it any more "real" than the book the Wizard of Oz or any other work of fiction.
That works for you as well! However, there is a God. Jesus is real. He really did die and rise from the dead again while claiming to be God. The arguments against the Bible usually boil down to arguments from silence, removing context, presuppositions and bad interpretation.
I happen to know there is no god, or Jesus and there never was. I'm in fact the one person who DOES know that for sure.
But like I said, to each his own. If it works for you, then it works for you.
You don't think Jesus ever existed? That's a bit of a stretch. Most historians agree Jesus existed. The most reliable and consistent historical account to who He is is contained in Christianity. Basically, some bloke existed, claimed to be God, did a bunch of miracles and ultimately rose from the dead to prove it. And He was also prophecised like around a millenia before He was born. And we have a surviving prophecy from 100 years before He did. That's the summary of why I believe in God, specifically Jesus.
I know he didn't exist, for a fact. And I'm very glad of it. A human world doesn't need gods or demons. It needs humanity and people being able to show up for each other. That's all.
As a concept, Jesus wasn't about doing miracles. It was all about being able to lift each other up. And no one should need to believe in fictional works to do that. Relying on such beliefs is why things never get better. Forget about concepts of god - and focus on human beings. In people I trust -- not in "gods."
Trust in people? And what do people do? Have you seen what we are doing in Ukraine and Gaza? Have you seen what atrocities we have committed in the past? You don't need to know God to know morality, as we know the difference between right and wrong due to Eden, yet we willingly do wrong. For our own selfish gain. Humans are inherently selfish and flawed. The reason why we need a saviour makes perfect sense.
Actually that just shows exactly why we don't need a savior in any sense. If a savior were in fact real, and was in fact meant to save us from ourselves - why isn't he/she doing their job? Why should it be some god's job to protect us from ourselves? It never has, and it never will.
We should spend much less on superstitious beliefs and more time investing in working toward peace. It won't happen from "on high." It happens from the ground on up.
We have been saved. And our salvation is not of this earth. For God so loved the world that He sent His one and only son - that whosoever believes in Him, shall not perish, but have eternal life.
We will never manage to achieve peace on earth. And putting away "superstitious beliefs" will just make your life very short. You can still work for peace and be a Christian, as well. I don't see why it needs to be one or the other.
It's a very nice thought and if that is what works for you that's great. As long as you find peace and love along the way, that really is what matters most of all.