Humanists are preparing for the yearly ‘eggsaggeration’ over the marketing of chocolate Easter eggs which, according to Christian campaigners, fail to promote the supposed real Christian meaning of Easter.
With Easter around the corner, Humanists UK is warning the media and the public not to be duped into supporting a confectioner by their marketing which consists of arguing that we need more mentions of the Christian message of Jesus Christ on Easter eggs. It comes after a long line of attempts by Christian groups to accuse others of sabotaging the ‘true Easter message.’
In 2017, Cadbury and the National Trust were accused by the Church of England of failing to promote the word ‘Easter’ in their egg hunt — even though the word was heavily featured throughout much of its promotional material. At the time Humanists UK called it ‘a storm in an eggcup’ after the prime minister Theresa May took time out of her trip to the Middle East to criticise the National Trust even though there was little evidence to the claims.
In fact the whole furore was tied to the marketing of a Christian confectioner, the Meaningful Chocolate Company, which was set up in 2010 to make ‘the only one which has an Easter story book in the box’.
Humanists UK Director of Public Affairs and Policy Richy Thompson commented: ‘The farce which targeted Cadbury and the National Trust in 2017 was an overstated, ridiculous attempt to promote Christianity with chocolate Easter eggs and we hope there is no such “eggsaggeration” this year.
‘While Christians celebrate Easter for different reasons, for the vast majority of us Easter is just a fun celebration where we enjoy extra days off work and school, spend time with our families, and eat more chocolate than usual. If a company wants to promote a Christian message on its Easter eggs then that’s fine, but this reality is not justification for a false “Christian persecution” narrative and really does harm to appreciating the much more serious persecution many people face around the globe.’
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For further comment or information, please contact Humanists UK Press Manager Casey-Ann Seaniger at casey@humanists.uk or phone 020 7324 3078.
Read our 2017 story ‘A storm in an eggcup: No, the National Trust has not removed Easter from its egg hunt’: https://humanists.uk/2017/04/04/a-storm-in-an-eggcup-no-the-national-trust-has-not-removed-easter-from-its-egg-hunt/
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