Eskimo Pie: Brand Tradition or Socially Offensive? (Embryo)

Eskimo Pie ice cream bars had enjoyed tremendous success over its century-long history. Although sales had slipped by 2020, the brand still enjoyed high brand awareness and favorable brand equity. As current owner of the Eskimo Pie brand, Nestle, a division of Dreyer, however, was receiving pressure to change the brand name by removing the term Eskimo. Despite controversy over the term’s origins, many people perceived “Eskimo: to be a racially insensitive (even condescending) term for Arctic people groups such as the Inuit and the Yupik.