The UK’s leading supermarket chains have jumped to Aldi’s defence in the viral caterpillar cake war over this past weekend.
In case you missed it, which would be a pretty impressive feat at this point, it was announced last Thursday that Marks & Spencer had decided to launch legal action against Aldi over its iconic Colin the Caterpillar cake, claiming that the budget supermarket’s own larvae dessert – Cuthbert the Caterpillar – is too similar, infringes its trademark and should be removed from shelves.
A spokesperson for M&S said: “Because we know the M&S brand is special to our customers and they expect only the very best from us, love and care goes into every M&S product on our shelves.
“We want to protect Colin and our reputation for freshness, quality, innovation and value”.
As you would expect, Aldi then decided to bring out the big guns on social media in response, by launching a #FreeCuthbert hashtag and marketing campaign on Friday.
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It spoke out in defence of its own caterpillar cake in a series of amusing tweets that mercilessly mocked its rival, before the British public typically chipped in to take matters into their own hands and turn it into the full-blown cake war it’s now become.
And now a number of other major supermarkets have waded in too.
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This is not just any court case, this is… #FreeCuthbert
We all know that several major supermarkets also have their own versions of a caterpillar cake – including Sainsbury’s’ Wiggles the Caterpillar, Tesco’s Curly the Caterpillar, and Asda’s Clyde the Caterpillar – but despite this, M&S has stated that Aldi’s Cuthbert is too similar to Colin, and that the dessert “rides on the coat-tails” of the retailer’s reputation.
Determined not to be out on the battlefield alone, Aldi then decided to recruit the support of its fellow caterpillar cake competitions.
“Cecil, Wiggles, Curly, Clyde. We got you. #FreeCuthbert” Aldi said on Twitter.
Even though Aldi made sure to tag its rivals in the tweet, Waitrose was the only one of them to directly respond to being dragged into the argument by admitting that “Cecil is watching from the sidelines”.
The supermarkets seemingly left out of the conversation had a lot more to say though.
Morrison’s responded to Aldi’s tweet saying: “When you find out your friends have a group chat without you #whataboutMorris”, with Coop then echoing the same sentiment in response to Morrison’s adding: “We feel your pain, it’s the 2nd time we’ve been left off the invite list.
“We call for co-operation for all caterpillars. #FreeCuthbert“.
Iceland – which had successfully managed to stay out of the firing line up until it decided to join in and take Aldi’s side on the matter – also took to Twitter to say: “Just wait till they see our ‘Colleen the Butterfly’ cake #FreeCuthbert“.
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And the Irish arm of fellow budget supermarket chain Lidl also posted a hilarious snapshot of their “legal team’s search history”.
Just wait till they see our 'Colleen the Butterfly' cake 🦋 👀 #FreeCuthbert
When will all this mayhem be resolved then? Honestly, we have no idea.
It’s said that if M&S’s intellectual property claim to the High Court ends up being successful, that Aldi will need remove Cuthbert from supermarket shelves right across the UK and refrain from selling any similar products in the future.
For now though, at least we have the endless raft of memes and supermarket responses to entertain us.
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Liam Gallagher says he’s ‘ready’ to make a surprise appearance at the World Cup final
Danny Jones
Liam Gallagher has said that he is “ready” to play at the World Cup final should England make it all the way to the last two later this month.
He may have just been having some fun on social media as usual, but you never know – after all, we never actually thought we’d see him and his brother reconcile, but look how that turned out…
In his words, he may have “Irish blood”, but the Manchester-born Britpop and rock icon has an English heart, and after one person online said it’d only be right for him to fly out for the conclusive fixture if Thomas Tuchel’s side make it all the way, he gave a typically off-the-cuff response:
You could argue there’s not much in this besides an impromptu comment from a famously keyboard-happy lead singer, but stranger things have happened.
For instance, it may have come after a gradually increasing barrage of old tweets, pestering and a bit of positive peer pressure in full view of the public eye, but we did at long last get to witness an Oasis reunion with the ‘Live ’25’ world tour; however surreal it felt, it’s soon set to be relived in a documentary.
This reply comes as a response to LG’s initial post on X, in which he wrote: “It’s hard work that singing Harry Kane cmon ENGLAND cmon WONDERWALL.”
It also isn’t the only time he stoked the fire of this still only pie-in-the-sky idea, either, as after another user similarly asked if he’d fly out and sing it at the final, he simply responded, “Oh I’ll show Harry how it’s done.”
He’s not the only one to have made a rather big public proclamation this tournament, either.
The England and Man United legend set himself up for a fall.
As for the 53-year-old musician, he also jokingly quipped at the expense of those less keen on the idea with just as straightforward a clap-back: “Stop crying your heart out.”
Now, obviously, we’re taking this one with a big pinch of salt (enough to season ‘some lasagneee’, you could say), but who knows? There’s been plenty of big and strange showbiz stuff happening at this year’s competition in North America.
Maybe we all need to just keep tagging the Burnage boys, FIFA, England and the official World Cup page as much and hope for at least some kind of Oasis-centric surprise.
Come on, just imagine how much this would go OFF if even one of the Gallagher brothers was in the crowd, let alone this unthinkable hypothetical…
ITV to be bought out by Sky in transformational British broadcasting deal worth £1.6 billion
Danny Jones
In a watershed moment for British broadcasting, Sky has reached a transformational agreement worth more than £1.6 billion to buy out ITV in a landmark takeover deal.
With Sky already owned by US telecommunications corporation Comcast, this is set to be one of the biggest shakeups in TV and streaming for some time.
Talks actually started last November, but the process to complete a buyout like this has obviously taken a significant amount of time and money already.
It’s also worth noting that the deal is still pending full approval from the relevant regulators; nevertheless, it’s fair to say that it could change the face of the British media giants – who are based here in Greater Manchester over at MediaCity – but might signal a significant overhaul of our media landscape.
The Sky Group have assured there will be no immediate change to popular shows and will not be put behind a paywall at present (for now, anyway), with ITV still under a free-to-air service until 2034 as part of its public licensing contract.
Aquisitons/mergers of this size like this don’t come around very often, at least not across this side of the pond, with the growing Disney’s growing multinational monopolisation being one of the biggest examples of conglomerates mopping up major networks and huge brands over the past decade.
Writing in a statement, Sky said: “The UK media market is undergoing a profound and rapid transformation, and as competition for audiences intensifies, scale matters more than ever in order to compete with global streaming giants and YouTube in the UK.
“Viewers will continue to enjoy the shows they know and love, such as Coronation Street, Emmerdale, Love Island, I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!, This Morning, Loose Women, Lorraine and News at Ten – alongside major live sporting events.”
That lattermost example feels particularly poignant at the moment, as this also means that the likes of ITV’s impressive World Cup coverage will come under the Sky umbrella in the near future.
ITV agrees sale of media and entertainment business to Sky for up to £1.6bnhttps://t.co/UtgO9REejy
It’s being seen as an ambitious attempt to shake up traditional terrestrial telly and digital platforms, with the ‘old guard’, as it were, having to move forward and fast to keep up with the mercurial market becoming evermore dominated by streaming services.
Of course, there are plenty raising questions and concerns over yet another domestic institution becoming deeper and deeper entwined with big American business; on the other hand, former ITV chairman Sir Peter Bazalgette, who still owns shares, says the deal was “essential” for its survival.
ITV will also receive £1.2bn in cash and Sky’s Love Productions business in return for ownership of their media and entertainment arm, whose shows include the Great British Bake Off.
Moving forward, ITV will also get a further £200m in 2028 if they meet revenue targets when it comes to advertising, with Sky promising to spend over £2.1bn on content from ITV Studios over a five-year period. You can read the full update from ITV right HERE.
Emily Sergeant -
19th April 2021 
