Although it can seem to take no time at all, it's really, really important to get the name of your business right. Although a nice, recognisable logo can take you a long way, a good brand name will give you the edge you need in getting the edge on your competitors, especially if you're in an industry as competitive as the food industry.
But in the rush to get ahead, you can accidentally come up with a name which seems okay in the moment, but which is decidedly not okay once you start your business and realise that everyone on social media is furious at you. Want an example? Look no further than this bakery owner out in Amsterdam, who's caught the wrong kind of buzz on social media over the name adorned on his storefront.
Referred to in local news outlets as Roberto Barsoum, Roberto's bakery name has been the cause of plenty of debate on Twitter, who believe that the new brand is insensitive to one of the tragic stories of the Second World War. Amsterdam is, of course, home to the Anne Frank House, where the suffering of Jews during the Holocaust is documented.
Located in the very same neighbourhood as the house is Anne & Frank, Roberto's bakery. Although Roberto seems to think nothing of the name, adding that Anne Frank was "a hero" to him. "She went through a lot. That's why I thought this was just a nice tribute," Roberto tried to explain. "Because my business is in the neighborhood of the Anne Frank House, it seemed like a nice name to me. She is, of course, world famous."
Plenty of people in the Netherlands, however, are extremely unhappy with the link to the Holocaust.
Social media Drukke Toesand, said in the above tweet that "even if the owners had been called Anne and Frank it would still be shocking," and this is far from the only tweet slamming the bakery for its tasteless name. In the wake of the internet outcry, though, Roberto has decided to change the name.
"I’ll have a good think about it. It wasn’t my intention to offend anyone," Roberto said to Dutch news outlets, although he admitted he had not yet thought of a replacement name for his bakery. That being said, social media posts earlier this week indicate that Roberto had at least taken "Anne & Frank" off the storefront, leaving it blank until he thought of something.
The Anne Frank House is the house in which Anne Frank and her family hid from the Nazis, before eventually being discovered in August 1944 and sent to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany, where she died of typhus a year later at the age of 15.
Her father Otto - the only member of her family to survive the Holocaust - had her diary published after the war, and since, it's become one of the most important books of the 20th century - and indeed, all time.
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