ALDI's Dong-Shaped Easter Marshmallows Raise Questions

The company even responded in the best possible way.

Matthew Horwood/Getty Images
By  Dennis Lee

Spring is just about to arrive, which means Easter's coming up too. Lots of grocery stores are starting to sell Easter goodies, including our favorite grocery store giant, ALDI. But one treat being sold at ALDI locations in the UK is causing a bit of a stir online. The product, an assortment of "Marshmallow Bunnies and Chicks," doesn't look like either of those animals at all. In fact, the marshmallows look a lot more like a word that rhymes with "chicks."

The ALDI Easter marshmallow controversy, explained

I first found out about this gloriously odd snafu via a post on the ALDI subreddit, which linked to this article at FOX Business. Twitter user @missviaborsi posted a picture on March 2 of the Easter marshmallows in question, with a caption saying, "Sorry Aldi, but that ain't a Bunny," along with some crying emojis. Possibly to indicate hysterical laughter.

And if you look at the photo, well, basically the marshmallows look like cartoon penises, dyed bright pink and yellow—more akin to something you'd see floating in the drinks at a rowdy bachelorette party rather than in the seasonal aisle at ALDI.

I initially thought that the white rabbit peeking out the top of the package label was some sort of balloon animal, so out of curiosity, I looked up what a balloon bunny looks like. I'm somewhat surprised to say that the marshmallows aren't quite far off from the outline of a balloon rabbit, in that they both look pretty phallic. Why is it so hard to make a bunny that doesn't resemble a doodle you'd find scrawled on a truck stop bathroom wall?

Most large companies would remain in chaste silence when confronted with such a deed, or apologize in some profuse, hyperserious way. But to everyone's surprise, ALDI UK not only acknowledged the offending bag of marshmallows but took to its official Twitter account to respond, retweeting the photo with the caption, "We can't even defend this one."

And you know what? It's refreshing to see a brand just own up to its own boners, in all senses of the word. ALDI's retweet has garnered thousands upon thousands of likes and retweets, and the account has been replying to many of the responses that have been flooding in.

I can just tell the social media team is having a field day over there. It must not be every day that the crew gets to tackle something besides customer service issues or new product alerts. And I don't often get to write about dick-shaped marshmallows very often, either, so ALDI is really spreading the wealth here. Nothing like an accidental schlong to unite the internet, if ever so briefly. The Easter season just got a whole lot more fun.

Recommended