The UK conservational charity’s move has drawn criticism from the general public as well as one of the organization’s members, Prime Minister Theresa May. She recently condemned the stance the National Trust took as “absolutely ridiculous.”
“I don’t know what they’re thinking about frankly… Easter is important for the Christian faith, for millions across the world,” she said during an interview with the BBC.
James Cadbury, who is also the owner of gifting chocolate startup Love Cocoa, said he can understand why the National Trust decided to drop the word as Cadbury is a multinational company, and it intends to appeal to consumers from multicultural backgrounds.
“But for a lot of British people, Cadbury is part of the culture. People associate their childhood memories [about Cadbury] with Easter,” he said.
There is outrage in the UK about the National Trust’s decision, Cadbury added, and he believes Cadbury consumers will continue to support re-adding Easter to the egg hunt.
Company’s self-defense
The Mondelez-owned chocolate maker said in a release, “It is simply not true to claim that Easter does not feature in our marketing communications or on our products.
“It is clear to see that within our communications we visibly state the word Easter. It is included a number of times across promotional materials, including our website easter.cadbury.co.uk and even embossed on many of the eggs themselves.
“We want to reassure consumers of our commitment to Easter, which is very prominent within our activity. We will continue to use ‘Easter’ prominently in our commercial campaigns as we do now and in the future,” the company added.
The descendant of the Cadbury founder also expected UK consumers to be exposed to the company’s marketing efforts of promoting its Easter products.