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Mother Furious over 'Racist' Toy Son Found in Candy Egg

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The makers of the Kinder Surprise candy egg have a lot of explaining to do after a toy contained in the treat had a very problematic message for youngsters — a toy that spelled out “KKK.”

The Kinder Surprise, for those of you not familiar with it, is a chocolate egg with a smaller plastic egg inside; that egg contains a small toy. The candy is banned in the United States due to regulations that prohibit the sale of any food item that contains a non-edible item inside.

One of the toys that was inserted into the candy was a plastic egg holding three balloons, according to Fox News; each of the balloons had a K on it.

You can probably guess where this is headed:

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Kimberley from Victoria, Australia, went viral when she expressed her outrage over the design to Australian website Kidspot.

“Initially we laughed in shock,” she said.

“It was kind of like ‘are we seeing and reading this right?’”

Do you think this message was deliberate?

However, she then said she “immediately felt sick at the thought that her son could have played with the toy.”

“My son is 15 months old — so he doesn’t read, but it would be easy for a kid who was old enough to read to ask what those initials meant,” she said.

“It’s also hard to find something to say as the initials of Kinder Surprise aren’t KKK. It raises questions as to what the company supports and if this is subliminal marketing.”

Other parents were just as outraged.

“Look what my niece (of mixed race) just found in her Kinder Surprise – KKK… what on earth Kinder?” another parent said on Facebook.

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Ferrero — the confectionary giant who makes the Kinder Surprise — said that the messaging was completely unintentional and had nothing to do with the Ku Klux Klan.

“We sincerely apologize for any offense caused due to the inference of how the three Ks read together on this toy,” a representative said.

“To offer some explanation of how this toy came to be, initially it was designed with one balloon with a ‘K’ on it. However, two more were added to provide a more robust structure, as the safety and quality of our toys is of the utmost importance.

“We had absolutely no intention to make any other associations and we truly apologize to our consumers for any unintentional offense caused.”

Whatever stock remained of the toy has been destroyed by the company. It’s unclear how widely it was distributed, although Fox News reported that it wasn’t available in the U.K.

It also wouldn’t have been available in the United States, given the fact that Kinder Surprise is banned in the country.

It’s difficult to imagine this being “subliminal marketing” or some sort of lone racist managing to insert an insidious, racist message into a children’s toy. That being said, I can’t imagine that this won’t end without someone losing their job or getting seriously reprimanded; you don’t just release a toy featuring balloons that spell out “KKK” without some serious negligence going on at the product design level.

Yes, I understand the KKK is almost entirely an American phenomenon and this trinket wasn’t destined for the American market, but the Klan, sickeningly, has enough worldwide name recognition that someone somewhere along the line ought to have caught this.

In a final sick twist, the toy was apparently designed as part of a special 50th anniversary limited edition collection.

It’ll be remembered, all right — albeit for all of the wrong reasons.

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C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he's written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal since 2014.
C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he's written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal since 2014. Aside from politics, he enjoys spending time with his wife, literature (especially British comic novels and modern Japanese lit), indie rock, coffee, Formula One and football (of both American and world varieties).
Birthplace
Morristown, New Jersey
Education
Catholic University of America
Languages Spoken
English, Spanish
Topics of Expertise
American Politics, World Politics, Culture




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