Kinder slams xenophobes after marketing backlash

Lindsay Bennett
By Lindsay Bennett | 26 May 2016
 
Pegida’s post on Facebook showing two of the Kinder chocolate bar wrappers.

Kinder Europe has responded to members of anti-refugee protest group Pegida that complained about images of non-white children on its chocolate packaging.

The controversy surrounds Kinder’s latest marketing campaign, which featured images of members of a German football team when they were young on the chocolate’s packaging.

The images of the culturally diverse football team has replaced the typical blue-eyed blond boys pictured on Kinder’s packaging.

A member of the Pediga group posted an image of the chocolate bars asking if it was a joke.

They wrote: “They’ll stop at nothing. Can you really buy these?”

kinder europeOthers called for a boycott of the chocolate bars. One wrote: “If that’s the case, I won’t be buying it any more.”

The two players the Pegida group complained about were Ilkay Guendogan and Jerome Boateng, both German nationals who play in the Bundesliga as well as the national team.

One commenter responded: "Do the Turks and other countries use pictures of German children on their sweets or groceries? Surely not."

Kinder manufacturer Ferrero said it would not tolerate “xenophobia or discrimination” in its Facebook community.

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