Store left with egg on its face after claiming Easter marks ‘birth’ of Christ
As part of its latest marketing campaign, a supermarket chain published a survey which showed many youngsters have no idea what Easter signifies.
But, it seems the person who wrote Somerfield’s press release also struggles to understand exactly why we celebrate the religious festival.
In an attempt to provide some historical background, the store claimed that the tradition of giving Easter eggs was to celebrate the ‘birth of Jesus’.
When the report’s author realised her error, she quickly sent out a correction, claiming that Easter marks the ‘rebirth of Christ’.
The release came with an explanatory note which read: ‘Please find below the amended story revealing Britons’ mounting ignorance regarding Easter.
‘Note the reference to rebirth (not birth) as previously stated. Apologies for any confusion.’What followed was a hasty consultation with the Church of England who politely pointed out that Easter actually symbolises the ‘resurrection’ of Jesus.
Brando, the PR agency which produced the press release on behalf of Somerfield then issued a third version of the report – this time containing the correct meaning of Easter.
Pete Williams, head of PR at Somerfield, said: ‘We spoke to the Church of England press office who suggested we use the word resurrection, in keeping with the Church’s teaching. We were happy to do that.’
Ben Wilson, one of the Church’s press officers, described the error as a ‘genuine mistake, if a rather unfortunate one’.
‘I clarified with them that it would probably be best to refer to Easter as a celebration of Christ’s resurrection rather than His birth,’ he said.
‘Easter is as hollow as most chocolate eggs if we don’t take the chance to think about what it means – that Jesus died, was buried and was resurrected to show us the power of God’s love – the power that allows us all to be born to new life. ‘Many of these figures are encouraging, with a fifth of the nation planning to celebrate Easter in church this Sunday – though, of course, we wish that figure was even higher.’