The blog Beirut/NTSC posted some very sad news yesterday, it turns out the Gandour “Tarboush” (AKA Rass al 3abed) is actually not a Gandour or Lebanese creation, but it’s actually copied from a Swiss company! They copied everything, the chocolate idea, the branding of it and even the name!
The original name of the Swiss chocolate was “Têtes de nègre” which translates to “Negro heads” in English and “Rass al 3abed” in Arabic. Back in 1992 “Têtes de nègre” was renamed to “Tête au Choco” or “Swiss Chocolate Whips” while in Lebanon Gandour just recently renamed it from “Rass al 3abed” to “Tarboush”.
I thought this was very disappointing since Lebanese generally regard “Rass al 3abed” as our very own product. As a commentator (bodywotwat) on Beirut/NTSC highlighted, this isn’t the only idea Gandour have copied, here are more products:
Safari is inspired from Lion Bar
Pik-One is inspired from KitKat
Pik-One Big is inspired from KitKat Chunky
Queen is inspired from Prince Lu
Hawaii is inspired from Bounty
Tofiluk is inspired from Twix
XL’Z is inspired from M&M’s
Gandour Gum is inspired from Chiclets
Check out Beirut/NTSC’s post [Here]
Update: It seems there is a possibility that Ras al 3abed was actually created in the 1930’s… once I find out more about this will post another update.