Waitrose axes ‘racist’ chocolate Easter ducklings after customers complain dark brown figure is labelled ‘ugly’

WAITROSE has apologised over a “racist” Easter duckling product after customers complained the dark chocolate one was labelled “ugly”.

The £8 box set of white, milk and dark chocolate ducklings upset some people for being marked “fluffy”, “crispy” and “ugly”.

It was temporarily pulled from shelves by the high-end supermarket so the packaging could be redesigned after a “small number” of customers were offended.

The Waitrose Trio of Chocolate Easter Ducklings are now available to buy again in shops and online.

Although not made explicitly clear by supermarket bosses, it’s thought that the name “ugly” may have been chosen as a reference to the classic fairy tale song The Ugly Duckling by Hans Christian Andersen.

The song is about a “stubby and brown” duckling which is mocked and shamed by other ducklings, but grows into a beautiful white swan.

One Twitter user shared a picture of the chocolate product and wrote: “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?”

A Waitrose spokesperson said: “We are 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.”

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