Adelaide University Union rebrands as YouX, the same name as a porn site

An Adelaide University organisation’s rebrand has been blasted by current and former students – not least because the new name is the same as a porn site.

Adelaide University students are in revolt over the rebranding of their union to a name already used by a porn site – and which eliminates any reference to it being a union.

The new name of the Adelaide University Union, which was established in 1895, is YouX, supposedly a reference to “user experience” but also used by the youx porn site.

Student newspaper On Dit reported the name had been “flagged by Google” as a result.

It also reported the rebrand went expressly against the advice given last year by the uni’s chief marketing officer Dr Benjamin Grindlay, who warned it was unnecessary and could cause a loss of “trust and prestige” and “loss or disconnect with the positive associations and sentiment that exist toward the AUU”.

Dr Grindlay warned removing the uni’s name and the word union would mean having to invest in explaining the brand to students every year, and that the cost of rebranding at a time of “university cuts” might “be considered to be a little tone deaf”.

When the organisation updated its Facebook profile page to the YouX name late last week, dozens of current and former students went on the attack, some claiming it was the result of conservatives on its board being anti-union.

“Imagine being a university union for over 125 years and then having the name changed coz some goons are a bit frightened of the word union. Well done chums,” one wrote.

Another said: “When you can’t be called a union because then people might expect you to defend their rights.”

Other comments included: “It looks like a bot took over! You can’t completely change a name to some weird dystopian ‘meta’ name to appease tossers”; “Money well spent, bravo, glad it wasn’t wasted on providing services to students”; and “(Board president) Oscar Ong, please have the decency to explain to the student community the cost of this inanity.”

Adelaide University Union board leader Oscar Ong. Picture: Keryn Stevens

The Student Representative Council – a subsidiary of YouX that had its funding cut by the then AUU earlier this year – had in May said it was “deeply concerned” about the rebrand.

“We believe that there has been a lack of genuine student consultation with AUU members on this rebrand as well as potentially an unjustifiably high price tag,” it said.

“We are worried that this rebrand has political intentions and is only being proceeded with due to the desire from figures on the AUU Board to remove the world ‘union’.”

A YouX spokesman said: “As a student services provider, our main priority is the student experience, and this brand helps to transmit that message. Feedback received so far has been overwhelmingly positive.”

“We have not been made aware of any instances where students have encountered inappropriate content using our name as a search phrase, and all testing to date has produced no unsafe search returns.

“Indexing of new sites can take time (up to a week) and in the interim search results may be mixed but once completed we believe searching and finding YouX will be easy and user-friendly.”

The cost would not be revealed due to “commercial in confidence” issues, but it had been funded through profits from “commercial entities”, not student services fees.

The spokesman said there was “unanimous support” from the board “which includes members from all sections of the political spectrum”.

He said Dr Grindlay’s advice was “from the early stages of the project” prior to “significant further research and creative development”.

“The final round of presentations and project updates provided to university leadership prior to launch has been well received,” he said.