WELLINGTON: The managing director of building company ISIS Ian Petrie has changed the name of company because it was getting “bad feedback” from its old logo and it made no sense to keep it.
BC Online, formerly ISIS Building Inspections, was one of several longstanding New Zealand companies that shared its name with jihadists Islamic State, known as ISIS. ISIS jihadists have beheaded hostages and burned a Jordanian air force pilot alive.
Police visited ISIS Building Inspections’ Auckland office last year after “someone complained that we were possibly a terrorist organisation”. “They checked out the website, the car numbers that were parked in the office, before they approached,” Petrie said. “They told us all this afterwards, when they realised the complaint was non-founded.” The company changed its logo and letterbox details on police advice, removing any reference to ISIS. It also dropped the black, white and red in its online branding. Petrie said he realised his company was “just another casualty of this [ISIS] lot” and the name controversy would not go away. In Tauranga, ISIS Financial Services owner Lisa Hotton is sticking with the name of her debt collection business.
No-one “running round with guns killing people” would sway her. She chose the name 20 years ago because she was interested in Egyptian people, history and culture. “People ask me why don’t I change the name but I just say ‘I had the name first’.” Her determination not to give it up grew when she saw a television documentary saying the goddess Isis was as important to ancient Egyptians as the Virgin Mary was to Christians. “That’s why I’m not changing it. She’s an Egyptian goddess; she’s got nothing to do with those Arabian idiots.”
Ian Apperley, of IT consultancy company ISIS Group, said most of the comments he got about the name were light-hearted. The Wellington company was “specialised and niche” so did not have much of a public image. Apperley had “sort of considered” rebranding, but decided the business was more about face-to-face contact than branded product. He had noticed companies overseas were re-making their brands, logos and letterheads, but he was happy to carry on as usual. No-one was throwing eggs at him yet, he said.
