Let’s talk about the Creme Egg advert and how we sometimes miss the mark, terribly

The new Creme Egg advert, which was released last week, is quite the wonderful affair. It’s also bringing some much needed colour, joy, fun, a little bit of sass, diversity and inclusivity — all of which takes place within the orbit of a Cadbury’s Creme Egg
The ad for a sweet treat has hit the headlinesThe ad for a sweet treat has hit the headlines
The ad for a sweet treat has hit the headlines

It’s honestly quite amusing really, and we all genuinely need something that creates a smirk, especially in times like the ones we’re living in (for a number of reasons).

The advert also happens to feature a real-life gay couple sharing an egg... and there in lies a million unnecessary headlines, news articles, discussion pieces, op-eds and so on.

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But honestly, why is that news? And, the same question was asked by many on social media, not just on ours but Twitter in general.

I think the catch-all headline, which for controversial SEO purposes seems to centre on ‘gay’ and ‘erotic’, ‘steamy’, or other words of that ilk were specifically chosen to create discussion, often without reproach. And, the writers got to work and out came a number of pieces on the advert. Many places (including us) asked peoples opinions on the advert, noting that the media focus seemed to be on representation of a non-heterosexual norm and the words, ‘erotic’, ‘steamy’ and so on.

To be honest though, it is cheap, it cheapens the work and stuggles so many have undertaken or suffered over the years in a quest to be seen, to be heard, to be respected, to feel equal. Whatever their choice of sexual preference may be… here’s a clue, it doesn’t matter what your orientation is, what does matter (and there are no ‘ifs’ about this, no ‘buts’ either) is that you are free to choose who or whomever you want, however you want and not be derided, despised, demonified, or any other negative connotation — obviously within the boundaries of the law, because let’s face it, some clever s0-and-so out there will make a comment on the matter, no… go away.

One of the worst things is that creating discussion around the advert and its choice of representation, with headlines like that or topic starters like we did, it’s salacious and it can be divisive, in this case it was, even if not intended. I don’t think that was ever the issue, I believe it was meant to be a bit of fun, focusing on why is it even an issue, is it actually that offensive, leading to the statement ‘why is it even a discussion in the first place?’ It’s certainly not headline news, and many of the comments got that right, it’s an amusing advert that happens to feature a couple sharing a Creme Egg between mouths.

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It’s nowhere as raunchy/erotic as a certain Flake advert in the early 90s or the Diet Coke Break advert from 1994, which was pretty much soft-core pornography, and it certainly doesn’t see a man dressed in all black climbing in through a woman’s window, leaving chocolate gifts for her. That alone is concerning, it hasn’t aged well, it’s a tad creepy and well, it was definitely of its time.

The Creme Advert by extension was just fun and joy, with a (more than welcome) splash of representation. It was pleasant and it will always offend someone, because somehow everything can do nowadays. But we’d like to see more consistency in representation going forward, not to be woke, to trend-hop but just to be, you know, representative of the wide array of people we’re so fortunate to live around, diversity enriches us, so we should embrace it.When we ran a piece on the ad, we posted something on Facebook and I would like to take a moment to apologise for the social post which has offended even one person (one is enough), inadvertently creating any divisive connotations while attempting to discuss the latest Creme Egg advert.

It was meant as easy discussion, but it aseems it missed the mark and offended some of you. I’ve taken the time to read the comments but we haven’t removed the post, simply because we need to be reminded of the times when we’ve made mistakes.

To our brothers, sisters and non-gender specific pronoun friends, we missed a trick here. We didn’t mean to alienate, belittle or create any anxiety nor animosity to such a wonderfully diverse community of people, whatever your chosen pronoun or preference for sexual orientation.

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We want to do better and we will. We are an ally for all, and a friend to everyone. Unless you’re a bigot, that’s just not cool. Be better… in short; we’re sorry.

We’re not infallible, we’re all human, we want to represent everybody within our locality and society as a whole in the right way. We also try to have a little fun with things and on this occasion, we have got it wrong.

Will we get this right all of the time, no… we won’t but we’re working on it. I’ve been here two months now and in my time here, I’ve been fortunate enough to meet a wonderfully diverse group of people who are just trying to deliver the news, engage with people, create discussions and sometimes stuff will miss the mark, wildly so, but that’s when we have to take the step forward, hold up our hands and own that mistake.

I’ve been made aware that people feel our representation and support for different communities isn’t as fair, equal, true, honest, consistent, reflective nor as respectful as it could/should be. We’d like to change that.

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Feel free to reach out to me at: [email protected] and please do tell me about you, your experiences, your worries, your fears, how things need to improve, anything, let’s talk, let’s change things and let’s try and create something positive out of this moment.

We can be better… but we can only be better if you help us to do so.

Seriously, peace and love.

Chris

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