Man perturbed by LKY's image on drink packaging, Yeo's says it's not for sale and follows Govt guidelines

This year is the 100th anniversary of the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s birth.

To commemorate the occasion, homegrown food-and-beverage conglomerate Yeo's has created a limited-edition centenary packaging for its chrysanthemum tea drink with an image of Singapore's first prime minister.

But Stomper Steven has reservations about it.

"I am perturbed to see Yeo's LKY centenary drink," said the Stomper.

"Did Yeo's get permission to use the LKY logo on its product? If so, will we be seeing many other products using the logo?

"I am sure LKY would not be pleased to see his name being used commercially, alive or deceased."

In response to a Stomp query, Yeo’s CEO Ong Yuh Hwang said: "Yeo’s consulted the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth to ensure its latest initiative to commemorate the centenary year of Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s birth is in line with the published guidelines on the use of Mr Lee’s name and image.

“We purposefully focused on the educational message of Singapore integrating gardens into our urban landscape. It was visionary in 1967 and remains relevant today. We thoughtfully found liked-minded partner organisations to distribute the commemorative packs in an educational setting. These partners include Gardens By The Bay, the National Museum of Singapore, Children’s Museum Singapore, National Parks Board, army camps, SAFRA clubs and schools.

"None of the 500,000 limited edition packets of our popular chrysanthemum tea are available for sale, but are given away for free.

"When designing the packet, we deliberately abandoned the usual brand identity of the product including the bright yellow and red colours and the prominent position of the logo. In the commemorative packaging, the green colour was used to convey Mr Lee’s visionary role in transforming Singapore into a green city. The Yeo’s logo was also reduced and moved from the centre to the bottom of the packaging.

"We hope that Singaporeans will see this as a gesture on Yeo’s part to unify the community around  the important value of balancing economic growth with environmental protection that the late Mr Lee had imparted."

The limited-edition drink is being given away at various locations around Singapore this month.

Mr Lee was born on Sept 16, 1923 and died on March 23, 2015.

To mark the centenary, the Monetary Authority of Singapore has also issued a gold-coloured LKY100 $10 coin minted in aluminium bronze.