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Food

Did Cadbury Rip Off This Twitter User's Oreo Creme Egg Idea?

The Marvin Gaye to Cadbury’s Robin Thicke here is a 29-year-old British man.

A lot of Frankenfoods emerge from the primordial ooze of the Internet; some beautiful, some strange, and some downright gross.

Eventually, major food companies like Frito Lay's, Taco Bell, and Ben & Jerry's started realising this—and capitalising on it.

By rolling marketing, market research, perceived virality, and R&D all into one, companies can tap into the well-spring of user creativity that is the Internet and sell a product that they otherwise might not have been conceptualised by the corporate hive mind. Of course, they also have to deal with plenty of trolling in the process, but getting free ideas from a willing public is probably worth it.

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READ MORE: This Food Blogger Says Burger King Stole His Recipe for Mac N' Cheetos

But sometimes, the origins of the "inspiration" behind culinary innovation is a little blurry and it can seem, at least on the surface, that the idea may have been "stolen" from social media.

In this case, the Marvin Gaye to Cadbury's Robin Thicke is British man named Nick Allam, who, back 2015, uploaded a photo of smashed-up Oreos crammed awkwardly into a Cadbury Creme Egg, with simple instructions for the chocolate giant: "Make this."

Hey @CadburyUK – make this pic.twitter.com/J1g6aj9esa

— Nick Allam (@nickallam) January 28, 2015

Cadbury replied promptly, insisting that they would take up his request with their product team, "Wow, now that's something we haven't tried before! We'll be sure to put that to our product team, see what they say ;)"

Lo and behold, two years later, Cadbury has officially released an Oreo Creme Egg in Australia and Canada, the delight of the hungry Internet. And while it's a little more structurally sound than Allam's, the basic idea remains the same—Oreos pieces inside of a Cadbury Creme Egg.

So @CadburyUK, you're welcome… #oreocremeeggs https://t.co/IhkJwb1lUD

— Nick Allam (@nickallam) January 13, 2017

When Allam caught wind of the "new" Creme Egg, he promptly retweeted his first post, adding, "You're welcome…" This led many online to conclude that the idea for the Oreo egg was indeed hatched in Allam's head, especially given Cadbury's enthusiastic response to his initial tweet.

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Allam told The Bristol Post that he holds no resentment and wants no money in return, all he wants is some sort of acknowledgement. "It is a bit like peanut butter and jelly," he said. "I came up with the combination but as I don't own the brands I can't see that I could profit from it, but it would be nice to get a thank you or a response from Cadbury."

The chocolate egg company eventually sent him some Oreo Creme Eggs, but instead of squashing the non-beef there, Allam made sure to mention that his creation was better in a follow-up video.

It's ridiculous that all the papers are following each other all because of a tweet about an egg

By the way, not annoyed. Happy Sunday!

pic.twitter.com/KnKuGqiSUY

— Nick Allam (@nickallam)

January 15, 2017

"It's gone way too far. It's absolutely mental. I'm exasperated. It's quite nice—mine is better," he declares.

This story is eerily similar to that of Kyle Marcoux, who goes by the name "the Vulgar Chef" and claimed last year that Burger King stole his recipe as the basis of their Mac N' Cheetos abomination. Marcoux, much like Allam, said he only wanted recognition.

But for all we know, the Mac and Cheetos idea could have come from MUNCHIES.