UK supermarket chain Waitrose came under fire on Tuesday for selling dark chocolate Easter ducklings labelled "ugly", with customers slamming the confections as "racist". The flurry of tweets began after Twitter user Livia Aliberti spotted the the ducklings on Waitrose shelves.
Waitrose later issued an apology, stating that it did not wish to "cause any offence" and replaced the ducklings with new packaging that removes the names.
Tweets rallied for and against the ducklings, with some calling the labelling "insidious" and accusing Waitrose of "a lack of diversity". Others tried to correct Waitrose, stating that the duckling was "grey", not brown.
But others criticised the angry shoppers for jumping to conclusions and called out the absurdity of Waitrose's decision to pull the Easter sweets from shelves.
— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) April 10, 2019
The sweets were inspired by Danish author Hans Christian Anderson, who wrote the fairy-tale "The Ugly Duckling" which is about a small ugly duckling that is treated harshly by other ducklings, but grows into a beautiful white swan.
"There once was an ugly duckling, with feathers all stubby and brown, and the other birds said in so many words, get out of town," the lyrics go.
"We are very sorry for any upset caused by the name of this product, it was absolutely not our intention to cause any offence," a Waitrose spokesperson told Sky news. "We removed the product from sale several weeks ago while we changed the labelling and our ducklings are now back on sale."
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Waitrose made headlines in October last year after it was forced to rename its "Gentleman's" Smoked Chicken Caesar Roll after a Twitter user slammed the sandwich as "sexist". "I never knew sandwiches were gender specific," Amy Lamé, night czar for London Mayor Sadiq Khan tweeted 16 October. "I'm female but thankfully Waitrose let me purchase this anyway."