Lyle’s Golden Syrup rebrand to drop biblical references

Lyle’s Golden Syrup is being rebranded to remove a reference to an Old Testament story.

Traditional tin packaging for the much-loved baking product shows the image of a dead lion surrounded by a swarm of bees in a reference to Judges 14 and the story of Samson and the lion. 

In the story, Samson kills the lion along with his bare hands and later sees bees swarming around it making honey. He takes a number of the honey and eats it. 

The design for the tins goes back nearly 150 years to founder Abram Lyle, who was a devout Christian. 

The image of the lion and bees was accompanied by a part of a riddle he wrote containing the words, “Out of the strong got here forth sweetness.”

The tins have been redesigned to indicate only a lion’s head and take away the road from Lyle’s riddle. They are being rolled out from this month. 

“Our fresh, contemporary design brings Lyle’s into the fashionable day, appealing to the on a regular basis British household while still feeling nostalgic and authentically Lyle’s,” said the corporate’s brand director, James Whiteley. 

Helen Edwards, who teaches at London Business School, told the BBC the revised design can be less “exclusionary”.

“The story of it coming from religious belief could put the brand in an exclusionary space, especially if it was to go viral on X or TikTok,” she said.