No, Cadbury Hasn’t ‘Removed Easter’ From Easter Eggs
Chocolate eggs have never been consistently labelled with the word ‘Easter’, so why does this claim keep resurfacing?
So today we have a debunk that, on the surface, looks lighthearted, but, as ever, has a darker message underneath.
If you’ve spent any time over on Twitter in the weeks leading up to Easter in the last year or two, you’ll recognise the kind of messages below…
The idea is that there are certain minorities we are trying not to offend, so brands have removed the word ‘Easter’ from packaging. And this claim is then backed up by a photo of Easter Eggs in a supermarket with vital context missing…
The tweet above by Ben Graham has had almost 4 million views in less than 2 days, despite being wrong on so many levels.
Great Britain was formed just over 300 years ago (1707), and we’ve had a couple of Queens along the way, but that’s by the by!
It’s the issue of Easter that I want to look at today, and more importantly, Easter Eggs.
This shouldn’t need saying, but I’ll say it anyway - Chocolate Easter Eggs are not a Christian thing. They were a successful marketing ploy by chocolate makers. The Cadbury website states:
“The ritual of giving and receiving Easter eggs is now one of the nation’s most loved traditions that the Cadbury brothers helped pioneer”
Eggs have long been associated with Easter and springtime, but chocolate eggs aren’t inherently Christian.
So let’s take a look at the history of chocolate eggs and the packaging, as that is the claim being made - that Easter Eggs used to be called Easter Eggs and manufacturers have removed the word ‘Easter’ in recent years
A history lesson
Buckle up for some serious nostalgia…
The first hollow Easter egg was created by J S Fry and Sons in Bristol in 1873, and as you can see, there was no mention of the word ‘Easter’ anywhere on the packaging.
Two years later, Cadbury created their own range of Easter Eggs.
Cadbury has been a pioneer of many of the Easter eggs we enjoy today. And it’s worth noting that the Creme Egg has never been a Creme Easter Egg. Mini Eggs have never been Mini Easter Eggs. In 1934, their Easter Eggs were labelled ‘Decorated Bourneville chocolate eggs’, and in 1968, they were selling a ‘Contrast plain chocolate egg’.
In the 1950s and 1960s, ‘Easter egg’ was found on the front of a lot of their packaging, but not all.
By the 1970s, the word ‘Easter’ was rarely found on the front of any Easter Eggs. Everyone knew they were Easter Eggs. It didn’t need to say so on the packaging!
It was the era of space rocket eggs, curly whirly piggy eggs, Freddo eggs, and even an Eastenders egg!
For more Easter Egg nostalgia, check out his York Press article and this Daily Mail article! You will see that the vast majority of Easter Eggs from our childhoods did not contain the word ‘Easter’ on the front of the packaging.
Modern Easter Eggs
Of course, anyone who actually enters a supermarket or buys Easter Eggs will know that every Easter Egg display is surrounded by the words ‘Easter’, and every Easter Egg box will say “Happy Easter” somewhere on the box - on the side, the top or the rear of the packaging.
In Ben Graham’s tweet, he claims “Cadbury won’t even use the word Easter on their eggs”, and yet there’s a photo of the two Cadbury eggs he claims to be referring to, very clearly saying “Happy Easter”. There is no way he missed that when he took his photo.
In Reform councillor Jaymey Mclvor’s tweet, he asks, “Any chance I can get an Easter egg, please, M&S?”, and yet, here’s the display surrounding the Easter eggs.
These posts were all about divisive, Islamophobic rage-baiting and getting engagement.
And it has an impact.
It adds to the ever-growing idea that minorities, and Muslims in particular, are somehow changing our British way of life.
And it permeates. Even when presented with the evidence that “Happy Easter” is very much on Easter egg boxes, people reply with, “Well, maybe, but you’re missing the point. This is just another example of British people having to pander to minorities”
Except it’s not an example. Because it’s not happening.
Just like Muslims weren’t trying to ban the word Christmas, they haven’t tried to ban dogs, and contrary to popular belief, they’re not trying to stop us from eating bacon!
And now they are also NOT trying to remove the word ‘Easter’ from Easter Eggs!
The idea that Muslims are upset by Easter, or are anti-Easter eggs, has absolutely no basis in reality. Alongside the complete lack of evidence for that being a thing, anecdotally, Twitter and Bluesky were full of comments about local Muslims collecting Easter Eggs for food banks, families exchanging Easter Eggs with Muslim neighbours, and I found a lovely video of a Saudi man with a truck full of Kinder Surprise eggs to hand out to everyone on the morning of Eid.
As I said at the start, on the surface, this feels like a slightly silly online story which no one would take seriously, but is actually part of a really pervasive narrative bleeding out from the dark corners of the internet into more mainstream areas.
As yet, this ‘story’ hasn’t made it into the newspapers, but Telegraph columnist Allison Pearson has tweeted:
So, expect it to appear in the Telegraph soon!
This isn’t about Easter eggs. It’s about manufacturing the feeling that something is being taken away by ‘others’, when it really isn’t…
Be on the lookout for this sort of content and take every claim of Minorities/Muslims banning or being offended by XYZ with a tanker full of salt!
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On a personal note, I really enjoyed my chat on the No Holds Barred Podcast last week with Don McGowan and Sal Snackered, which you can watch on YouTube or listen to in all the usual places if you’re interested.
I’m looking forward to seeing a church notice board advertising its Easter services ‘based on an original pagan celebration’.
It is sad that the minority of people who feel the need to start these ridiculous falsehoods, just to try and stir up hatred are even taken seriously by anyone. Social media is so often abused by the nasty people for their own ends, unfortunately a large percentage of mainstream media just regurgitate the miss information, with lazy poor quality writing. It is thanks to good quality journalism from writers like Emma that the facts are given in a constructive and effective way.