‘We might as well stop buying them,’ Cadbury fans cry after ridiculous woke change to Easter eggs
CADBURY fans have blasted a shop for advertising chocolate Easter eggs as “gesture eggs”.
The chocolate giant’s discount store in the Springfields Outlet in Spalding, Lincolnshire, offered customers a two-for-£10 deal on “gesture eggs”.
Outraged shoppers took to social media to express their anger with one on X, formerly Twitter, writing: “The world’s gone.”
Another said: “I love Cadbury’s chocolate but won’t be buying any Easter eggs called gesture eggs.”
A third tweeted: “I’m not even religious and this gets my back right up. Why are all things Christian being attacked right now?”
The removal of the word “Easter” also provoked backlash from the Christian community.
“Easter eggs symbolise the resurrection – just as Jesus rose again from the tomb, new life emerges from eggshells,” Tim Dieppe, the head of public policy at Christian Concern, told The Sun.
“They also symbolise the new life that we can have through the forgiveness that Jesus obtained for us on the cross, enabling us to be ‘born again’.”
He added: “Without the message of Easter there would be no reason for Easter eggs.
“One wonders why a store would want to erase the connection between Easter and eggs?
“If people stop celebrating Easter, they might well stop buying Easter eggs.”
Cadbury‘s said the discount store was run “completely independently” by Freshstore and denied having any involvement in the promotion.
The chocolate firm also insisted “Easter” is still used in other areas of Cadbury’s advertising.
It’s understood the independent retailer named the display as “Special Gesture” eggs.
Other Cadbury outlet stores in Cheshire Oaks, Wirral, and Alfreton, Derbyshire, are also said to have promoted “gesture eggs”.
A spokesperson for Mondelez International, which owns Cadbury, told The Sun: “This promotion is not Cadbury led and we had no involvement in any way.
“All Cadbury Easter shell eggs sold in the UK reference Easter very clearly on the packaging – sometimes multiple times.
“Cadbury has used the word Easter in our marketing and communications for over 100 years and continue to do so with our new Easter product range.
“To claim anything otherwise is factually incorrect.
“We are proud of the role we play within families’ Easter celebrations and have a wide range of products that can be enjoyed throughout the Easter season.”
And it’s not the first time the chocolate giant has come under fire for omitting the word “Easter”.
A National Trust event was rebranded to the “Great British Egg Hunt” in 2017.
Former Prime Minister Theresa May branded the move “absolutely ridiculous” at the time.
Senior clerics accused the chocolate giant of trying to “drop Easter” and “airbrush faith” after changing the event.
Meanwhile the company was also slammed for missing the word “Easter” off their chocolate eggs in the same year.
Cadbury said the “Easter” was embossed on the actual egg.
And among the madness, staff at the University of Brighton were last year told they should refer to Christmas as “the winter closure period”.
Iconic chocolates that have left shop shelves
Cadbury’s Dream Chocolate bar: The popular bar was discontinued in 2002, but was relaunched in 2019 under the new name ‘Cadbury White’.
Mars Delight Bar: Although it proved to be a firm favourite by sweet-toothed fans during its four-year stint in shops starting in 2004, by 2008 it was removed from shelves. Fans still long to see the treat make a return.
Nestlé’s Caramac chocolate bar: The one-of-a-kind bar had been in shops for over six decades, but was discontinued last year due to continual slumps in sales.
Milky Way Crispy Rolls: They were pulled from shelves in 2022, and fans were so distraught by the news that a petition was started to bring them back, which currently has more than 8,500 signatures.
White Maltesers: The white chocolate version of the popular snack had a strong run lasting 11 years, but falling sales saw them discontinued in 2014.