Kraft’s huge embarrassing fail that is iSnack 2.0 will go down in history… PR text books will cite it in their crisis control chapter and conversations around the water cooler will float to where were you when iSnack 2.0 launched? This is Kanye-calibre stuff we’re talking about here.

Me? I stumbled upon the full page ad while flicking through the Sydney Morning Herald in the LAX Qantas lounge. I was in the midst of leaving a comfortingly manic Manhattan life for a more healthy and balanced (translation: slow) life in Perth, Western Australia, so I won’t pretend that I was emotionally stable or anywhere near sober at this moment (hey, it’s a big move!); but, I am not exaggerating when I say that upon learning of this nefarious nomenclature, I burst into tears and nearly called the whole thing off. A bit rash I realise, but to me it symbolised the type of creative ideas and minds that I would encounter as a marketing strategist… and it scared the hell out of me. Luckily, upon deplaning in Perth, I was greeted with the news that the Internet felt the same way – with a number of spin-off blogs, videos and t-shirts quickly emerging to capitalise on the snafu. It came as no surprise when Kraft announced it was pulling the plug on the name and would be conducting a poll to find a suitable replacement.

The thing that I find the most curious of all, is the fact that a number of high authority marketing, news and lifestyle blogs continue to refer to the incident as a crowdsourcing disaster. We’re talking relatively large, smart publications here – PSFK, AdAge, Gizmodo to name a few. Can I just say, iSnack 2.0 is not a crowdsourcing disaster, because it was not crowdsourced. I realise this is a relatively new marketing term, so the definition mightn’t be universally solidified; but in basic terms, to ‘crowdsource’  is to engage a group to provide possible answers to a given problem (in this case, what to name this new product) and then allow the community to vet the options to arrive at the best possible solution. In this case, Kraft asked the public to submit names for its new product and then Kraft (presumably some out-of-touch corporate marketing monkeys) selected the winner. Given the degree of fury that consumers responded with, it’s pretty clear that iSnack 2.0 wasn’t the crowd favourite and should’ve been ousted in favour of the popular vote. This isn’t Florida after all…

I say bring on the Vegemite Vista.