Irish Examiner view: Bounty-less sweet collection gets product in the news

Mars Wrigley's plan to remove Bounty bars from boxes of Celebrations is confined to Britain, with no plans to extend it to Ireland.

Confectionery company Mars Wrigley is to remove Bounty bars from boxes of Celebrations in a trial before Christmas, following a survey which revealed that many customers don’t bother eating the coconut-flavoured treat.

Even as the news broke, grudging admiration had to be expressed for a company which had found a way to get its product in the news. Manipulation of the audience, plain and simple. But the kind of manipulation you can almost enjoy.

Then came the extra layer of significance that wrapped the story in a nice symbolic bow. Mars Wrigley declared that the experiment was confined to Britain, with no plans to extend it to Ireland.

The immediate conclusion is that Ireland must be a nation of coconut-flavoured chocolate lovers, staunchly supporting the Bounty — but what if this is yet another result of Brexit Britain?

Will we see Remainers there ordering Bounty-inclusive Celebrations as a gesture of solidarity with the EU? 

Will Bounty-less Celebrations be championed by Brexiteers — who then secretly feast on the unexpurgated boxes in the style of Tory MPs quietly taking out Irish passports?

Perhaps we are overstating the symbolism and should take a leaf from Kingsley Amis’s book. 

When told the film Jaws could be read as a Freudian fantasy of wish fulfilment, Amis disagreed: He said the film was about the fear of being eaten by a big fish. 

This story is about the absence of one sweet from a box this Christmas — and it is one winter indulgence we won’t be told to cut back on here.