Brits Are Freaking Out About the Very, Very Bad Word on This Box of Crackers

There are near countless reasons a massive retailer-turned-food-manufacturer would decide to change an aspect of one of their products. Waning sales, food-safety concerns, copyright disputes, and an unstable ingredient supply would all be more than enough to force most corporations to turn tail.

But how about accidently trying to sell your loyal patrons a quaint box of country crackers with the word "C-U-N-T" capitalized and printed on the package for all to see?

Well, that's pretty much exactly the situation British supermarket chain Aldi found itself in recently. The budget chain is being forced to alter the packaging for its new luxury brand of cheese biscuits released under their Specially Selected line of goods.

The reason?

The product's packaging actually has the gall to promise "deliciously thin and crispy crackers" in an "English country garden." Too bad the text was capitalized as follows: "CoUNTry."

Yes, those letters really pop! And one graphic designer is now ruing the day he or she thought up that clever design. The gaffe did not go ignored.

The Telegraph reported that Tim Coulton posted the following on Aldi's Facebook page:

"Dear Aldi, I was just curious about your choice of letter capitalisation on the packaging of your rosemary Gourmet Crackers. I took especial interest in those capitalised in the word 'CoUNTry'. Any particular reason for this design?"

Cheers, Mr. Coulton. That was pretty restrained.

The c-word, of course, evokes particularly strong feelings, even in people who liberally use every other James Lipton-approved, Apostrophes-quizzed curse word. In short, it is almost no one's favorite curse word.

One Nick Hodgson was looking to place blame: "Surely this is no accident," he wrote. "Someone must have noticed. I can't think of anything worse than your crackers taking the piss out of you."

So what's crackers about the packaging of these @AldiUK biscuits? http://t.co/I7MzCiGoLd pic.twitter.com/xgF7NXzvYa

— Danny Boyle (@DannyBoyle87) September 4, 2015

As one internet denizen pointed out on the website Imgur after they posted a picture of the package, "Someone at Aldi might get in trouble for this."

Probably right. Aldi, the sixth-largest British supermarket chain, has 560 stores. The offensive crackers had evidently been on sale for about a month, but when Aldi got wind of the problem a re-design was quickly ordered.

Still, some packages with the old design are still available in markets, according to the UK's Daily Mail, who found one in Aldi's Manchester city center store.

Stock up, party people. We can foresee a black market for these boxes very soon. Now to get some Camembert and a connection to the Darknet.