Why do people go to awkward lengths to call butter substitutes by their brand names? (would you like butter or Flora, luv, in yer baked potato?)
I presume they are all technically margarine (which as far as I know was never a brand). So why do we not use the word margarine, as my parents did in 1948?
In the late 1940s it was probably a matter of some embarrassment to say you ate margarine, as it may have indicated you were poor or (in Britain) did not have enough ration coupons to buy butter.
But nowadays when people prefer it for health reasons, why is there not a satisfactory and generic name for it? I am constantly aware that people, in restaurants, shops etc are fishing around for what to call it.
Best Answer
Part of the answer is in your question: Those of us who had older relatives who were scarred by the stigma of being too poor to afford butter, were taught that margarine was "low class".
The main reason was touched on by Hot Licks' comment: Advertisers have turned food into fashion. As it's not a "handbag", it's a "Coach" bag; those aren't "sneakers", they're "New Balance cross-training shoes", "margarine" is too generic a word for the myriad, proprietary concoctions (with fancy names) that protect people from admitting that someone in their family was poor at one time, and managed to develop (and pass on) a taste for the stuff.