politically incorrect prunes in California

Here’s what I read in Wikipedia yesterday:
“In the United States, due to the negative association of prunes with regularity and the elderly, the California Dried Plum Board, renamed and began remarket prunes as "dried plums."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prune

First I didn’t believe this, so I found a site of The California Dried Plum Board. But Wikipedia proved to be right! Here is a quote from their Press Release:
YOU WON'T HAVE PRUNES TO KICK AROUND ANYMORE
PLEASANTON, CA (June 15, 2000)—The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted the California Prune Board (CPB) permission to use "dried plums" as an alternative name to "prunes."

The CPB requested the name change after research showed that the name "dried plum" offers a more positive connotation than "prune" and would encourage more people to try the fruit.
http://www.californiadriedplums.org/media/press_detail.asp?Nid=29

Isn't this funny? Or just stupid?

Actually, I've noticed that lately.

It's true -- prunes were mainly associated with something old people ate to "keep things moving", and their sales and marketing suffered because of this.

Whether renaming them "dried plums' will overcome that is still to be seen. We all still know what they are, and what they're commonly used for. But stranger things have happened....

My instinctive reaction? The CPB's action strikes me as distasteful and Orwellian. It's a free country, and I suppose that if the term "prune" is really hurting their sales then they have a right to call it whatever they want...but still, it seems that they're just trying to kill off a perfectly useful word; and I love words.

<<We all still know what they are, and what they're commonly used for.>>

Exactly - it's as if they're insulting people's intelligence.

Honestly being a non-native speaker I am not able to feel an offensive connotation of "prunes", though I'm aware of all its meanings.
Do you know other potentially "provocative" names of fruits, vegetables, flowers, so we'd know what to expect next?

The term "prune" does not have *offensive* connotations but just simply negative connotations; being offensive per se would require that it actually offend someone.

O.K. So I can rephrase my question:
"...other potentially "negative" names of fruits, vegetables, flowers"?

The whole thing sounds even more odd for me just because in my town in California(!) there are a lot of streets named after a "prune":

Prunetree Ln, Prune Blossom Dr, Pruneridge Ave, Pruneyard, etc,...

Here's an announcement of a festival in a neighbouring town:

"At one time famous for its prunes, Campbell celebrates its heritage with an annual Prune Festival and has named one of its major shopping malls "The Prune Yard."

I wouldn't say that "dried plums" instead of "prunes" is an example of political correctness because, as Travis points out, "prunes" is not an offensive word. I would call this an example of "marketing correctness," if anything.

Anyway, companies can call it whatever they want but I haven't heard any normal people, even here in California, ever refer to the things as "dried plums." A prune's a prune.

<<Here's an announcement of a festival in a neighbouring town:

"At one time famous for its prunes, Campbell celebrates its heritage with an annual Prune Festival and has named one of its major shopping malls "The Prune Yard.">>

Oh you live near Campbell? I bet since Campbell likes to stress its rural, laid-back heritage in comparison to the more frenetic pace of the high-tech cities around it in the Silicon Valley they'd be fine with naming things after prunes. After all the Santa Clara Valley used to be a valley of endless plum and apricot orchards (amongst other things) before the fertile soil there began growing things like Apple Headquarters and Googleplexes.

"Oh you live near Campbell? I bet since Campbell likes to stress its rural, laid-back heritage in comparison to the more frenetic pace of the high-tech cities around it in the Silicon Valley they'd be fine with naming things after prunes."
Actually the whole Silicon Valley, from San Jose to Palo Alto is full of "prune" "cherry", "apricot" names . But a "prune" (not a "plum")seems to be a leader.