About

#FreeCuthbert refers to a viral debate which started on Twitter in response to UK retail store M&S taking legal action against Aldi, another UK retail store, over the ownership of their signature caterpillar cake.

Origin

On April 15th, 2021, Marks & Spencer begun legal action against Aldi over infringement of their Colin the Caterpillar cake supermarket's Cuthbert the Caterpillar cake infringes its Colin the Caterpillar trademark.

On April 16th, 2021, M&S lodged an intellectual property claim with the High Court and warned Aldi to remove the product from sale and agree not to sell anything similar in the future.

Reaction

On April 15th, 2021, in response to M&S' legal action, Aldi UK took to Twitter and started humoursly posting tweets out about the situation.

The first tweet was Aldi making fun of M&S' "this isn't just any food, this is M&S food" tagline by adding "This isn't just any food, this is… #FreeCuthbert". The tweet received over 69,000 likes and 8,170 retweets (see below)

This is not just any court case, this is… #FreeCuthbert

— Aldi Stores UK (@AldiUK) April 15, 2021

In response to the tweet, #FreeCuthbert started to trend on Twitter and users on social media started showing support for Aldi.

Aldi continued to poke fun of the situation by tweeting puns such as a tweet posted which said "just Colin our lawyers" which received over 64,000 likes and 580 retweets (see below).

Just Colin our lawyers.#FreeCuthbert

— Aldi Stores UK (@AldiUK) April 16, 2021

Major news publications such as BBC News, the Independent, Metro and Evening Standard all reported on the legal action case.

Search Interest

External References