Is the word Easter being Removed from Easter Eggs? Fact Check
Rumours are spreading across social media that Easter Eggs have been banned, or that the word “Easter” has been deliberately removed from packaging because it offends those who do not celebrate Christianity.
The rumours are often fuelled by a March 2016 article from The Daily Star with the headline “Easter Eggs are Banned“. This has led to a number of different rumours, including the claim that UK supermarket Tesco has banned Easter Eggs (or the word Easter) or that chocolate company Cadbury has removed/banned the word Easter from their packaging.
What’s true: A story did appear in the Daily Star on March 23rd 2016 with a headline that claimed “Easter Eggs” are banned. Other tabloid newspapers have penned similarly worded articles in the past.
What’s false/misleading: While a selection of Easter related products no longer feature the word “Easter” as prominently as they have done in previous years, most Easter products still contain the word ‘Easter’ a number of times on the packaging, thus disproving the claim that the word has been banned. Additionally, many other products (including products from Cadbury and products found in supermarket Tesco) still feature the word Easter prominently on the packaging as well as embossed on the egg itself. There is absolutely no evidence that any Easter products have had packaging altered to avoid offending other religions, or that members of other religions are offended by something as frivolous as Easter Egg packaging. Also worth noting is that many Easter Egg products – even ones dating back from the 1970s – have never featured the word Easter prominently, with brands often opting to prioritize brand awareness on the packaging instead.
These points are expanded on below.
Firstly the primary claim is that Easter Eggs – namely Cadbury – do not have the word Easter printed on them. This is demonstrably false. We ourselves examined several eggs – both Cadbury owned and others – at a supermarket and found the word Easter appeared at least once on almost every package. Photos below.
And some Cadbury products even contain the word “Easter” very obviously indeed –
Additionally you can visit the homepage of Cadbury and see Easter related material printed all over the homepage!
ADDITIONALLY Cadbury have made numerous mentions to Easter on their social media channels…
Easter’s on the horizon and @chr1s_dorn has had a visit from our busy bunny! #EggBombing #EggsEverywhere #Chocolate pic.twitter.com/5Yl9Bi9UY1
— Cadbury UK (@CadburyUK) March 7, 2016
Thus accusations or rumours that Easter or Easter Eggs are banned or are being removed are entirely baseless.
Secondly, the rumours assert that this perceived omission of the word Easter has something to do with political correctness regarding offending other religions. There is simply no substance to this accusation. From what we have determined, no company producing chocolate eggs for Easter have asserted they will be avoiding the word Easter for fear of offending religious groups, nor are we aware of any religious groups announcing that they are offended by Easter or indeed Easter Eggs.
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Some social media commentators have pointed out that the word Easter is not displayed prominently on the packaging. Well, looking back through the years, many Easter Egg packaging have not emphasised the word Easter prominently for some time. Most large companies have opted to emphasize their brand and product on the packaging, not the word ‘Easter’, and this has been the case for a number of years now. In fact many companies have never displayed the term Easter prominently on their packaging. You can see images of older Easter Eggs from the 1970s here that contain no obvious mention of Easter.
A Cadbury spokesperson tells us –
It is very obvious through the packaging that it is an Easter egg. We do not have a policy to remove the word ‘Easter’ from our packs or marketing. Some of our marketing states Easter and some just Egg.
Cadbury have also issued the following statement regarding products where the word Easter is not displayed as prominently as it has done before –
Most of our Easter eggs don’t say Easter or egg on the front as we don’t feel the need to tell people this – it is very obvious through the packaging that it is an Easter egg
Hence there is simply no evidence or even any suggestion that this has anything to do with offending religious minorities. It is simply a business decision to help promote a brand while appealing to a wide a demographic as possible. Basically, it’s just business, and not any kind of subversive muting of Western culture as all this alarmist nonsense would have you believe.
Despite this nonsense being debunked many times, these rumours are often reignited by tabloid “journalism” and political influencers via social media, and the claim is often used as part of a wider narrative aimed at targeting religious or ethnic minorities. Similar rumours often claim that the word Christmas has been banned or or traditional festive imagery or culturual traditions, again using the trope of “avoiding offending minoirities” as its fuel, and again more often than not such rumours are misleading or outright false.
No, Easter has not been banned, nor has the word. No company is avoiding the word Easter because it will offend other religions. This is fuelled by trash journalism and political misinformation.
As is included in the original Daily Star article itself (right at the end, naturally) Cadbury have said – “We do not have a policy to drop Easter from our eggs.”
And you can pick up nearly any Easter Egg and find that out for yourself.
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