Nutella bans 'Muslim' from custom-label jars in France

The list included scores of words, including "Muslim", "Nazi", "lesbian", "Jew" and even "palm oil"

Nutella, the Italian hazelnut chocolate spread craved and loved by millions around the world, has found itself at the centre of a controversy for banning a list of words including ‘Muslim’ and 'lesbian' on an online app which allows customers to to personalise jars with a message for loved ones.

The 'Say it with Nutella' campaign, which follows a similar campaign by Coca Cola last year, allows chocolate enthusiasts to have their names or messages written on a jar of the chocolate spread, which they could then share on social media.

According to Daily Mail, Nutella's website says: 'Here you can create your custom messages and share them with those you love.'

But users soon realised that some words were could not be used when they received an error message reading "Your message contains a word that does not conform to the terms of use of Nutella."

The list included scores of words, including "Muslim", "Nazi", and "Jew". Surprisingly, "Christian" was not banned. Expectantly, many words related to drugs and sex were also off limits, including "homo" and "lesbian". Oddly, "palm oil" – an ingredient of the popular Italian spread – too was banned. All variations of the word "obesity", with or without misspelling, were listed. "Cancer", "fatso" and "diabetes" were also off-limits.

 



 

Ferrero, the company which produces Nutella, explained in statement that “the negative or insulting messages were directly removed from the field of possibilities, the idea being to use the jar of Nutella as a communication medium to share enthusiasm.

“Similarly, words of communities that are often subject to attacks by malicious people were removed from the proposals.”

The news comes a day after it emerged that Marks & Spencer had banned the words 'Christ' and 'Jesus Christ' from being allowed on messages sent with bouquets of flowers.

Grâce à la campagne Nutella toi aussi découvre tous les sujets qu’ils veulent éviter http://t.co/X3lL9gw5IN pic.twitter.com/bzZrVnUpiJ

— Cabaroc (@Cabaroc) February 24, 2015