Smiths drummer Mike Joyce has a bone (and gristle and eyes and lips) to pick with high-end British grocery chain Marks & Spencer. On a recent shopping trip, Joyce realized that the M&S’ pig-shaped sweets marketed under the name of Percy Pig were made with pork-derived gelatin. Joyce sees this as a chicken-omelet level of warped and he let his feelings be known in a Facebook post.
“I know that a lot of sweet products and deserts contain some form of animal derivative but how many children know, or are made aware of the fact, that the Percy Pig sweet they are eating does in fact contain bits of Percy’s skin, bone, ligaments etc.?” he asked the grocery store.
Joyce took offense at the idea of “dead pig” being served in cute pig chewies. Here’s hoping he’s taking offense at the “pig” part and not the “dead” part, otherwise British childhood is way more horrific than we’ve been led to believe.
The store does make a vegetable-based gelatin version of the candy, but that only led Joyce to more questions. Namely, why doesn’t the store make all of their Percy Pig candies with a vegetable-based gelatin?
“Why not make them all veggie? Can kids tell the difference?” he asked the company. “I’m sure kids would rather eat a sweet called ‘Percy Pig’ that didn’t contain bits of dead pig? Is it a cost issue that you sell both?”
Joyce also made it clear that he’s not against all animal-based gelatin, just this particular instance.
“[Selling] a product that’s primarily aimed at children with the jovially named, ‘Percy Pig’ to indeed contain dead pigs just doesn’t seem right,” he said.
(Via Pitchfork)
