Waitrose accused of racism over ‘ugly’ dark chocolate duckling

Waitrose has apologised after it attracted criticism for selling “racist” dark chocolate Easter ducklings branded “Ugly” on the packaging.

The supermarket took the £8 set of chocolate ducks off sale after the social media backlash, which slammed the naming. The white chocolate duck was called “Fluffy” and the milk chocolate one “Crispy”.

One Twitter user who took offence to the names shared a picture of the Easter gift online, writing: “Crispy, Fluffy and Ugly – trio of Easter ducklings at #Waitrose.

“Ugly is the dark one on the right. Overheard women saying ‘this is not right’.

“I agree, doesn’t look good at all. Thousands of other options… why #ugly?????”

Crispy, Fluffy and Ugly - trio of Easter ducklings at #waitrose . Ugly is the dark one on the right. Overheard women saying “this is not right” , I agree, doesn’t look good at all. Thousands of other options... why #ugly????? pic.twitter.com/bw5iFCcPuz

— livia a. aliberti (@livia_aliberti) March 7, 2019

The product was withdrawn following a string of similar complaints. It has since been put back on sale in redesigned packages without the names.

However, the change has also prompted an angry reaction, with many saying that Waitrose has given in to excessive political correctness.

Are @waitrose actually having to remove a chocolate Duck for sale because they called it an ugly duckling and people think it's racist

— elle_MRSHLL (@LouiseMx_) April 9, 2019

A Waitrose spokesman said: “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."

This article originally appeared on our sister site, Lancashire Evening Post