British grocery chain Waitrose has been forced to apologise after customers complained it was selling “racist” Easter eggs.
The confectionary in question came in the form of three chocolate ducks, including a milk chocolate one called “Crispy”, a white chocolate one called “Fluffy”, and a dark chocolate version called “Ugly”.
However, customers have taken to social media to express their dismay of dark being associated with ugliness.
One of many Titter complaints read: “Waitrose apologised over ‘racist’ Easter ducks – I mean really? – why did they have to call the dark brown one ugly? Surely whoever thought of this idea really NEEDS to wake up & see that of course it would take offence!”
Another added: “Has no one on this thread actually read the box of Waitrose chocolate duckings? The WHITE one is FLUFFY , the TWO BROWN ones are called CRIPSY & UGLY …. Waitrose is taking the f@cking piss. How did NO ONE in that company say, ‘Wait, hold-up that’s not ok?”
However, not everyone was quick to jump on the racism bandwagon, arguing the duck’s name comes from Hans Christian Anderson’s famous children’s fable The Ugly Ducking.
While others simply thought the whole thing was a pointless beat-up.
For its part, Waitrose recalled the product and had it repackaged before returning it to shelves.
A spokesperson added: “We are very sorry for any upset caused by the name of this product, it was absolutely not our intention to cause any offence.
“We removed the product from sale several weeks ago while we changed the labelling and our ducklings are now back on sale.”