Does Cadbury Have Egg-Woke on Its Face at Easter?

I thought that Cadbury creme eggs were one of the great miracles of manufacturing. How did they manage that luscious, luxurious combination of thick chocolate egg holding the yummiest, runniest creme complete with yellow “yolk” in the center?

Ambrosial. Miraculous.

But then I grew up and have developed a serious addiction to their mini eggs in the Royal Dark chocolate. A really frustrating addiction, as they get harder to find every year. Kcruella and I send each other plaintive texts starting in February, “Have you seen any?” – whining when there’s a Cadbury display…and they’re all that nasty milk chocolate.

If one of us spots any in either Florida or New Jersey, we jet off a “SCORE!!” to the other, so she can try to find bags to hoard. If she can’t, we do what besties do and send a care package boxload. Then we try to make them last as long as possible.

We’ve been Schlitz outta luck this year, both of us.

WAAAH

And the Cadbury commercials – holy smokes, those are fun. The bunny tryouts. I mean, come on. 

Who wouldn’t want their pet to be the Cadbury bunny?

BWAWK, BWAWK

For the record, this year’s winner for next Easter is a raccoon named Louie from Miami.

Cadbury creme eggs are California’s favoritestest Easter candy – the data confirms it!

Americans are expected to spend billions of dollars on Easter candy in 2024 — and you’d better believe a large portion is going toward chocolate eggs.

Be they filled with a peanutty paste or whatever that goop inside a Cadbury Crème Egg is supposed to be, chocolate eggs are the “most popular” Easter candies among DoorDash customers in the weeks before the holiday. In fact, the analysts at DoorDash have determined that chocolate eggs accounted for the largest share of Easter candy purchases in 47 states, based on sales data from this time last year.

In England, Cadbury’s home country, they even write articles dripping in nostalgia about Cadbury treats from your childhood Easter past.

18 forgotten Cadbury’s Easter eggs that will bring childhood memories flooding back

The packaging of your favourite chocolate treats has changed a lot over the years

As well as being a religious celebration, Easter is a time of year when both kids and adults love to over-indulge in chocolate.

While eggs have long been associated with the Christian tradition of lent, the practice of gifting chocolate eggs at Easter is a more recent custom with its roots in the early 19th century.

In the UK, one of the biggest manufactures of Easter Eggs is, of course, Cadbury. The company was started in 1824 in Birmingham and is celebrating its 200th birthday this year.

…But for those who grew up in the 1970s through to the 1990s, memories of those colourful Easter Egg packaging and breaking into the eggs only to find it filled with another chocolate surprise will always bring a smile to our faces.

We never got anything like that. Man.

Cadbury is synonymous with Easter for so many people and has spent so many decades positioning itself as the Easter egg company that it came as something of a shock to find that maybe Cadbury didn’t think so themselves.

WHUT?

Gesture eggs: Cadbury outlet store criticised over Easter rebrand

According to the Daily Telegraph, the shop in Springfields Outlet in Spalding, Lincolnshire, was offering a two for £10 deal on the “gesture” eggs.

Cadbury’s owners said it had “no involvement” in the promotion. The BBC has approached the store for comment.

GESTURE EGGS

Maybe they felt a little rebranding was in order?

I’m not sure whoever thought it was a great idea was ready for the uproar, particularly with what’s been going on in London every weekend.

‘We’ve come to a point in our society where we need to fight back and say “no, we’re not having that”.’

Former Chaplain to Queen Elizabeth II, Dr Gavin Ashenden, reacts to Cadbury advertising Easter eggs as ‘gesture eggs’ in a shop in Lincolnshire. pic.twitter.com/ltRbePDKFE

— GB News (@GBNEWS) March 27, 2024

Cadbury was quick like a bunny to jump on the problem created by the…um…artful and apparently unauthorized creative advertising of their “independently run” outlet store, emphasizing EASTER, WE LOVE EASTER, WE ARE THE EASTER EGG PEOPLE numerous times as they did so.

In a statement, Mondelez International said: “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.

The firm added: “We have contacted Freshstore, the independent retailer who put up this poster in a very limited number of stores, and we understand they will be taking these posters down.”

Cadbury might have a hot cotton tail from all the criticism, but the Beeb points out it’s not the first time the company’s been caught with their Easter knickers down.

…It is not the first time Cadbury has been criticised for omitting the word “Easter” in its marketing.In 2017, a row erupted after a National Trust Easter egg trail, sponsored by Cadbury, was renamed the Great British Egg Hunt.At the time, it prompted the Church of England to accuse the National Trust and Cadbury of “airbrushing faith”.

Although this would probably be the first year that the Church of England would defend the idea of “gesture eggs” instead of Easter.

They’ve pretty well got egg-woke on their faces, too.

BWAWK BWAWK