A video that recently surfaced on Facebook was sent to us. It shows shots of Ferrero's "kinder chocolate" on a supermarket shelf, with one pack depicting a dark-skinned child and another with a light-skinned child. Prices vary and accusations of racism have been made.
Upon closer inspection, it turns out that this is a misunderstood special edition. In this article we will clarify the facts and examine the background to this controversy.
Fact check at a glance
| claim | Fact check |
| The video shows racial disparities in the prices of Ferrero's “kinder chocolate”. | No, the price difference is based on promotional prices/discounts. |
| The special edition with the dark-skinned child is cheaper, which is discriminatory. | No, the lower price results from a higher discount in the special edition with 10 bars. |
| Ferrero produces children's chocolate for Africa. | No, the different children's images are part of a EM special edition and have no connection to geographical regions. |
| The video was recently recorded. | No, the video was published in June 2020 and refers to the Euro 2020. |
| The price tags show racist price differences. | No, the price tags show promotional prices and discounts for different product variants. |
“Children’s chocolate for Africa”
“FERRERO is finally producing children’s chocolate for Africa. “That’s a real contribution to feeding the Third World,” wrote the Facebook user when he posted the video in question.

“So guys, I want to tell you what was a bit racist. 74 cents – a bar of chocolate with black children on it, with ten pieces. 89 cents with German children on it, but there are only eight pieces in here. Where’s the mistake here?”
Spoken text in the video
The Facebook post lacks any context. It is also not stated when the video was recorded. It therefore appears that this is a current event. However, we were also able to find the video on YouTube, where it was published June 2020

The accusation of racism is also made here, as you can see from the description. However, the timing of publication is certainly relevant.
Ferrero’s special edition for the European Championship 2020 – “kinder chocolate”
The packs with different children's photos and different numbers of bars are not a racist marketing strategy by Ferrero. Instead, it is a special edition that Ferrero introduced during the EURO 2020 football championship. Although the European Championship was canceled due to the corona pandemic, Ferrero still offered this special edition with players from the German national team.
The packs also contained collectible stickers with football players from the German national team. These could be found in various Ferrero products, and the “kinder chocolate” was just one of them. The packages featured children's photos of the players on the German national team. “kinder Chocolate” also published a video on Facebook in May 2021 ( archived here ):

In this video you can also see the package that could be found on the supermarket shelf: Antonio Rüdiger is pictured here as a little boy.
And the price differences?
Confusion arose due to the different prices and quantities in the packs. The pack with the dark-skinned child costs 0.74 euros and contains 10 bars, while the pack with the light-skinned child costs 0.89 euros but only contains 8 bars. At first glance this seems unfair and incomprehensible. The person who recorded the video sees a connection to the skin color of the children pictured and therefore considers it racist.
The crucial details
To better understand the situation, we need to pay attention to the important details.

The price tags on the packs show that these are promotional prices. The special edition with 10 bars has been reduced by 50 percent and costs 0.74 euros, which means a starting price of 1.49 euros. The regular pack of 8 bars normally costs 1.19 euros. Here in the video you can see a price of 0.89 euros, which corresponds to a discount of 25 percent.
Conclusion
The viral controversy over Ferrero's "kinder chocolate" and the alleged racial differences in prices are based on misunderstandings. The video wrongly made accusations of racism without taking the facts into account.
The different prices are due to promotional prices for a special edition for the European Championship 2020 and have nothing to do with racism. It is important to carefully examine such situations and check the facts before making such massive allegations.
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Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )

