"Jerry Avins" > in
:
> ...
> I think that the ascendancy of the spelling "ketchup" is primarily a
> result of Heinz having chosen it. Hunt's apparently sells both "catsup"
> and "ketchup", depending on the market. There are those who think that
> ketchup is genuine and variant spellings are somehow fake, on the model of
> "cream" and "creme".


Of course popular late-20th-c. editions of even the two dominant
20th-century US cookbooks (Fannie Farmer and _The Joy of Cooking_) disagree
with those folks, as I mentioned. (They might want to look at a few
cookbooks I listed.)

Not to read too much into your example, Jerry. But it reminds me how usage
and writing experts go on about affected US spellings done for cynical
marketing purposes. ("Shoppe" for shop, specifically in the US -- where
"shoppe" is archaic -- it may be still common in England, I'm not sure).
"Creme," no accent, isn't a regular word in US, France, or I think England.
(Of course crème, with the grave accent, is a common French word, usefully
imported to English-speaking countries in names of specialty foods -- crème
fraîche, crème anglaise. English is always importing useful expressions.)

So if someone's willing to write "creme" in the US, they might equally spell
it kreme -- and what do you know, they do!