Q. This one has been bothering me for nearly two years now, ever since Kraft rebranded its product line. Why does Snackwell’s have an apostrophe?

This appears to be grammatically incorrect and I can find no real basis for putting an apostrophe in the name.

A. I submitted your question, dear reader, to Kimberly Fontes, who is a spokeswoman in the East Hanover, N.J., office of Mondelez International, the company that sells Snackwell’s.

“We’ve looked into it, and haven’t found specific detail on why it is included, but can confirm that it has always been there,” Ms. Fontes writes in an e-mail. “Apologies to not have more detail on this one.”

It is possible that the search for the reason behind the apostrophe may be complicated by the number of times that Snackwell’s has changed corporate parents. When the brand was introduced in 1992, it was made by the Nabisco Biscuit Company division of the RJR Nabisco Holdings Corporation. The most recent change took place in October, when Kraft Foods spun off its global snacks business as Mondelez International, a separate and publicly traded company.

I would guess that the apostrophe is included to suggest or imply that someone named Snackwell came up with the brand, in the same way there are brands like Campbell’s and Macy’s based on people named Campbell and Macy.

Q. I’m writing about your post on the Media Decoder blog, describing how a complaint led the folks who make Peeps to withdraw a humorous holiday e-card that used the Yiddish word “shiksa” and showed a Peeps candy wearing a yarmulke.

If they had said “chick-sa,” it would have worked.

A. Thanks, dear reader, for the smile.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/10/business/media/q-and-a-with-stuart-elliott.html?partner=rss&emc=rss