Cadbury admits Creme Egg shrinkage
Chocablog reader Cliff spotted that Cadbury have updated their web site after the recent fuss about shrinking Creme Eggs. The new text does not specificially state that the eggs have shrunk, only that there is a “broad variety of sizes and flavours of products”.
It’s also a candidate for the worst marketing-speak we’ve heard in years, and seems to imply that consumers actually asked for smaller Creme Eggs:
Why has the size of the egg changed?
As the world’s largest confectionery company, Cadbury Schweppes is committed to developing great-tasting products that you, the consumer loves. Since people’s preferences vary from market to market, so do our products. This is reflected in the broad variety of sizes and flavours of products that we offer our consumers worldwide.
For reference, the same page used to say:
Why has the size of the egg changed?
It hasn’t – you’ve just grown up!
Come on Cadbury/Hershey. Quit the excuses and give the people back their full-sized Creme Eggs!
April 12, 2007 : 10:10pm
Great stuff, the line goes from a pleasant, innocent line to a full-blown paragraph full of marketing gibberish. I guess the extra half inch in diameter of chocolate and creme was putting a damper on their profit margin. The stuff still sells like crazy though, greedy buggers.
April 14, 2007 : 7:37am
Those bastards.
April 14, 2007 : 7:43am
hey sorry but i really love the cadbury boost bar does anyone think they could review it? also has the fuse been dicontinued because i cant find it anywhere :( lol :)
April 14, 2007 : 5:14pm
I don’t think it’s that big of a deal. Yes, it’s unfortunate that the Global Cadbury site didn’t know that the American arm shrunk theirs. But with the way that transportation and fuel costs have risen, I’m not sure what else they could have done but raise the price.
I think I prefer the smaller size. (Not the mini size, well the mini size for the caramel ones is the best.)
If there’s anything to be on Hershey’s case about right now, it’s that they’re pushing the FDA to change the acceptable recipe to be called chocolate and possibly take out all the cocoa butter.
April 14, 2007 : 6:33pm
Chocoholic123, I have a review of the Boost Bar on my blog. I’m even on Dom’s blogroll here, so he won’t mind me advertising myself around here. Just click ‘The Chocolate Review’!
April 14, 2007 : 7:55pm
ooo cool thanks:) ;)
April 14, 2007 : 7:59pm
Least the nestle walnut whip hasnt shrunk since ive grown :) :P ;)
January 14, 2009 : 7:59pm
BOOST BAR HAS NOW BEEN SHRUNK!!!!
Bought a Boost (WAS my favourite choc bar) from the work vending machine today, and discovered it was noticeably thinner and shorter! As well as this shrinkage, the texture was lighter than normal and left a funny aftertaste.
CADBURYS WHY MESS AROUND WITH PRODUCTS YOUR CUSTOMERS LOVE??? DO YOU REALLY THINK WE ARE SO STUPID WE WON’T NOTICE YOU RIPPING US OFF? SORT IT OUT!
January 14, 2009 : 8:00pm
I’ve emailed Cadburys.
January 25, 2009 : 12:25pm
As with all companies who shrink their sizes….those who are caught are banned from my household….my wages haven’t changed…fuel costs are down…no excuses now for downsizing except for greed and trying to make up for lost sales revenue…..sorry cadbury…. I will find alternatives for our Easter baskets this year
January 27, 2009 : 3:45am
I knew it and now BJ has proved it!!! THANKS!
January 27, 2009 : 5:37am
As a small business owner, I understand the change in size of the egg. It is usually not greed that forces a company to make a product smaller. It is usually that their operating expenses and ingredient prices have gone up. So, it’s either raise prices or make the egg smaller. In the last year purchasing for my business, nearly EVERYTHING I order has increased in price. This was something I could not have understood until actually experiencing it first hand…from the other side of the argument.
January 27, 2009 : 8:04am
Jeanna said it best….”Those Bastards”
January 27, 2009 : 4:24pm
Since a Cadbury egg is how I celebrate Easter after Lent, I’ll keep buying it. And, as for it getting smaller, fewer calories, right?
January 27, 2009 : 4:46pm
That’s exactly what they hope people think. Fact is you are paying the same price for a lower quality and quantity product.
January 27, 2009 : 10:17pm
The “why” of it is clear. That’s directly related to operation costs. But the real issue here is why did they LIE about it?
Why not just come out & say, “Ingredients cost more so our products will see an increase too.”
That’s all. Just play fair. Be honest. The consumers are not idiots, so don’t treat us like we are. I have more respect for the Girl Scouts announcing the need to change their cookie packaging, cookie size or number of cookies in a box becuase of the economy. It doesn’t make me feel cheated. It gives me the option to buy or not & most likely I will. Because they didn’t try to lie about.
January 27, 2009 : 11:10pm
Maybe that should hire George Costanza as their pitch person.
March 6, 2009 : 3:23pm
They actually taste different too! They are smaller and perhaps they have done, what many chocolate manufacturers have done, stopped using cocoa in exchange for corn syrup, as it is much less expensive. My favorite easter past time-what I wait for all year-crushed. Thanks Cadbury.
March 6, 2009 : 3:38pm
Dear Cadbury,
Thank you for ruining my life! – Signed, The Egg Hater.
Mary…You are right. They did something different. The chocolate was thicker and melted better in my mouth. The ooey gooey goodness used to make a mess. It is thicker now. This is utter blasphemy. I don’t care if things cost more today. I would pay the extra money to get what I think I am supposed to get. It is not like I sit around eating a plethora of eggs. It is a treat. I enojoy it…I savor it…I don’t care about the calories…IT IS A TREAT. But now I sit and stare at the shinny wrapper and think about yester-year. Hmmmpfff…R.I.P., old skool Cadbury Egg. Know that you are missed
March 6, 2009 : 3:50pm
May I suggest everyone emails Cadburys with complaints, as I have done – and state these complaints in no uncertain terms – no pussy footing around.
The more negative feedback they recieve from customers the more likely they are to listen and change, whereas if people keep meekly buying the product and making do with the inferior and accept getting ripped off then they will only be encouraged to do it all the more! COMPLAIN DIRECT TO THE COMPANY!
March 6, 2009 : 4:31pm
For reference, it’s worth noting that I wrote this article 2 years ago, and that Creme Eggs are different around the world anyway.
AngryConsumer is right though. If you’ve got a problem, you’re far better off writing to the company directly.
March 20, 2009 : 11:35am
ok. So i am FUMING!!!!! I am a major Creme Egg Fan!! (Well I was!!!)I would have PREFERED a price rise, rather than the ‘shrinkage’. This is disgraceful!!!!!! I buy approx 100 eggs (so i can eat them over the entire year) during the Easter period. But not happy at all that they are SMALLER and I SWEAR they have changed the ingredients also…. (tastes different.. Not as good…)
SO HEAR THIS CADBURY- ‘I WILL NOT BE BUYING YOUR CREME EGGS TILL THEY ARE THE ORIGINAL SIZE!!!!!!’
You are not gonna rip me off!!!!!
PS; DOM, I will be writing to Cadbury!!!!
Absubloute disgrace!!!!
April 5, 2009 : 1:56pm
This is the reply I after emailing them about their recent bar size shrinkage.
‘Thank you for taking the time to contact us regarding the recent weight changes in some of our products.
As you may be aware, commodity costs for many manufacturers are increasing
significantly to unprecedented levels. Over the past twelve months, the
cost of cocoa and sugar
has already risen by an average of 8%. These cost increases are out of
Cadbury’s control.
To ensure we are able to be price competitive and continue to meet market
and consumer needs we have reduced product size.
The quality of our products is of the utmost importance as is your
continued satisfaction. Therefore your comments have been forwarded onto
our Marketing Personnel for their consideration.
Once again, thank you for contacting us on this occasion and if you have
further enquiries regarding our products, please don’t hesitate to contact
us again.
Kind regards
CADBURY PTY LTD’
April 13, 2009 : 11:54am
The nature of the egg is to shrink. Anger, passion… These are excuses. Allow yourself to break through the shell, and witness the glory of your shadow.
August 14, 2009 : 6:12pm
I actually was glad when I realised the Creme Eggs were smaller because one whole one of the old size always made me feel sick. To avoid this, I was prone to balancing half eaten eggs in the fragments of foil and trying to eat them in a way that would allow the chocolate to contain the goo until I returned.
Having said all that, my dislike of milk chocolate grows with every passing day and this past Easter, while I welcomed the smaller egg, I realised I just don’t like them anymore. In New Zealand a few years ago we went to the Cadbury factory and I bought a mint egg with DARK chocolate and it was indeed heavenly and I think that’s what finally soured my relationship with the standard Creme Egg.
October 13, 2009 : 12:09pm
You know from inside sources
no just someone I know who works in Cadbury’s when they changed the roses individual wrappers they decreased the sweet size but increased the packaging…sneaky sneaky
This has happened with HB too
If they make a product 1/10 smaller thats one extra item they make profit on out of every ten for nothing
January 10, 2010 : 10:21am
Theres one good reason why their slogan the size of the creme egg hasnt changed, youve just grown up, doesnt hold water.
If that were the case we would all think regular hens eggs have gotten smaller too as we got older, I cant speak for anyone else but to me, hens eggs are about the same size as they have always been,Cadbury Creme Eggs are a lot smaller. Confectionary companies have been doing this for years in case no one else has noticed the little trick I have spotted them doing several times over the years is they bring out a new “King Size” bar a lot bigger than the regular one and costing a lot more, then over time they reduce the size of the regular one and at the same time reduce the size of the king size one until the regular one is so small no one buys it then they phase out the regular one and the now reduced size “king Size one is now the regular one at the same much higher price it was at when it really was “king Size.”
January 10, 2010 : 10:29am
IanV! Thanks for your insight on the King Size bars! I will be keeping my eyes peeled for this sort of crap!
January 12, 2010 : 4:49am
Simone, take a look at the size of the regular snickers bar, how small it has got, I’m sure a regular snickers was never so small as it is right now.
January 12, 2010 : 8:24pm
I actually don’t mind the smaller sized egg. My only complaint with them before was that they were TOO big. But I don’t like the mini eggs because I get carried away and eat too many. So this is perfect for me.
Yay Easter!
January 25, 2010 : 10:12pm
Just reading about the creme egg shrinkage – well, we have one unopened from 1977 (it was for our grandmother, and we put it in a small decorative egg shaped tin for her easter gift – sadly she died before we could give it). So that is 33 years old! We compared it to the 2009 model and guess what – em , it was the same size – sorry!
January 25, 2010 : 10:15pm
ps we live in Northern Ireland
January 25, 2010 : 10:41pm
Geez, m atcheson, you don’t suppose they never increased in size in all that time either, do you?
This world is filled with people making and breaking cases based solely on their own experiences. Apparently your 33 year old egg trumps, the photo in this post, scores of people noticing it and Cadbury admitting it themselves. Thanks for cracking the case! Sheesh.
January 27, 2010 : 10:11am
What sarcasm Simone, maybe in America or other countries they did shrink, but not in the NOI is all I am saying,
sheesh jeez and anything else you may care to proffer
Excuse me, I have other cases to crack – enjoy your smaller creme eggs this year
January 27, 2010 : 4:39pm
m atcheson, sorry to be so sarcastic, but instead of concluding with “…perhaps they shrunk in other parts of the world, but at least in Northern Ireland, they appeared to have remained the same.” You just said “sorry” as though you had debunked everything. Otherwise, I found your story of a 33 year old egg quite intriguing as that’s the kind of horror I would expect to find in parents’ house! I’d love to know more about the condition of the egg as I am only 1 year younger than it!
February 22, 2010 : 10:30pm
Has Cadbury always used corn syrup in their eggs? I recently bought some thinking they’d be the same as last year’s with no corn syrup, but after eating one I got a headache all day, which is an indication that there is corn syrup in there because I’m ALLERGIC! I’m appalled.. What kind of a land do we live in where we use cheaply modified foods that cause cancer and heart disease?? Not to mention diabetes and all of our fat victims out there (not only the humans but the cows, too. Yes, we’re being pumped with the same crap).. If Cadbury wants to make something delicious they’d stop using that corn syrup and high fructose corn syrup and make a REAL candy, with REAL sugar!
February 22, 2010 : 10:42pm
What kind of a land do we live in? One where people want to pay the lowest price possible. For every one person like you who would pay extra for real sugar, there are a hundred more who want to pay the absolute least amount possible. That’s why TVs no longer come with any kind of installation or accessories and why they don’t last very long.
February 22, 2010 : 10:55pm
The ingredients used in Cadbury product vary from country to country. e.g. the chocolate in the UK is made with vegetable oil which is banned in some countries.
I don’t know about about the filling, but it’s worth remembering that the Creme Egg is made under license by Hershey in the US. If you may be allergic to an ingredient, you should probably approach them directly and ask.
March 11, 2010 : 10:31pm
BOYCOTT> AND THEY ARE STILL 40/50p EACH> OUTRAGE>
April 9, 2010 : 12:14am
ARRRRGGG!!!!1!
I eat my cream eggs with a tea-spoon (yes, a spoon) and they used to fit perfectly! I could, in one swift movement get most of the cream out and I would nom up that sh*t, BUT NOW! NOW ITS TOO SMALL FOR MY F’ING SPOONS!
*shakes fist* You will pay Cadbury, you will pay.
April 30, 2010 : 3:20pm
Ever since Hershies aggressively took over Cadbury’s and sacked all the loyal british staff I’ve been trying to work out what this will mean for me. I think it’d disgraceful how they have acted and sets a precident for bad ethics from large companies.
I think I need to start pissing off all the shareholders and remind them of the misery they’ve caused real people.
And don’t even get me started on the size of good being shrunk without telling us! That’s daylight robbery!
OK so I’m gonna have to boycot Cadbury’s now