Know them? They went up the hill. Then they grew up, got a job with Unilever and were forced to change their names.

Alright it was nearly ten years ago that Jif became Cif so why don't I just get over it? I have a bottle of the stuff under the sink because it works but after all this time I still resent the name.

But surely it doesn't matter that a brand name has meaning? It's just about the benefits that attach to it in the mind of the consumer, isn't it? Well I don't think so. Jif was named Jif because it suggested it cleans things quickly - which it does. A jiffy is a very short interval of time. It even has meaning in electronics, computing and physics - although confusingly not the same meaning. I will never warm to Cif. I might as well change to the equally ridiculously named Cillit. Jif used to Vim, but that's one change I applaud. For me Vim was something my late mother used, a dry powder that came out of a cardboard tube with a perforated metal lid. I was only forced to do one year of Latin but it was enough to learn that Vim means strength - a reasonable idea for cleaner.

Or maybe the whole thing is a brilliant plan to bring back Jif and wipe out Cillit, which can hardly become Jillit in response, can it? Unilever would clean up.

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Nigel Penn-Simkins 0118 951 9450