Is the word “Easter” too Religious For Cadbury?

By Nathan Glover --
24 Mar 2016 --

The word “Easter” is dropped from Cadbury’s iconic chocolate eggs that appear on shelves during the Easter season.

The celebration of Easter is often symbolized with the exchange of eggs. In its origin, the act is a pagan concept. However, through the ages, the egg has been incorporated as an official symbol for Easter, which happens to be a purely Christian tradition.

Is the word “Easter” too Religious For Cadbury?[/tweetthis]

But, things seem to be changing in recent times.

Research conducted by the Meaningful Chocolate Company indicates that the word “Easter” is being gradually eliminated from chocolate giant, Cadbury’s packaging. The company observed the chocolate manufacturer’s chocolate egg packaging from the year 2012 to 2016 and found that, in these 5 years, the word “Easter” has failed to make it into the packaging for over 80 million chocolate egg products.

A recent survey concerning this issue produced surprising results. When questioned about the removal of the term “Easter” from chocolate packaging, 4 out of 5 respondents in the U.K. stated that they preferred to retain the term in the packaging.

In another instance, YouGov conducted a poll with 2050 respondents, who were asked whether it was okay for manufacturers to do-away with the word “Easter” on the packaging. 79 percent of the respondents stated that they were not okay with it and that “Easter” must be included into the labeling and packaging. The remaining 11 percent stated that the decision to remove the word was fine.

Meaningful Chocolate, the company behind the initially mentioned research, stated that Cadbury’s decision to remove “Easter” from its chocolate egg packaging was ironic, especially when considering the results of the survey.

In an attempt to buck the trend, Meaningful Chocolate has created its own version of the Easter egg chocolate called “The Real Easter Egg.” The term “Easter” is clearly emphasized on the packaging, which even contains a small Easter Story booklet.

According to the CEO of Meaningful Chocolate, David Marshall, other manufacturers might be avoiding the usage of the term “Easter” in their packaging as an attempt to stay non-religious or secular. He also added that the public, however, prefer to refer to their chocolate eggs as Easter eggs, which is a relief for his company’s products.

WHY??? Why r u dropping "Easter" this Politically Correctness has gone Too Far! https://t.co/JnZEZe4GiC
— ChristineLaMuse (@ChristineLaMuse) March 22, 2016

Rev. Nicholas Holtam, the Bishop of Salisbury commented that it was interesting to note the resistance to the removal of the word “Easter” from chocolate packaging. He added that people probably understand the religious significance of the age old Christian tradition and that they probably do not want to see it turned into something fully secular.

He also emphasized that Easter must be remembered for what it is really about – the death and resurrection of Jesus.

It is believed that the Christians of Mesopotamia were the first to incorporate the use of eggs in their celebration of Easter. They would have the eggs stained red in memory of Christ’s sacrifice, while the egg itself represented Christ’s empty tomb after the resurrection.