For as long as anyone can remember, Colin the Caterpillar has been a birthday staple. A Marks and Spencer’s Colin the Caterpillar Cake. Then, as is the way of the world, other brands and supermarket chains cottoned on and started making their own. Tesco has Curly, Sainsbury’s has Wiggles, Asda has branched out and made Sid the Sausage Dog but really, they’re all incredibly similar. This is why it was such a shock when M&S decided to launch a lawsuit against Aldi for their Cuthbert the Caterpillar cake.  

Aldi had stopped selling their Cuthbert cakes in February, two months before M&S went public with their infringement lawsuit, so we imagine Aldi knew well in advance about this and the publicity it would bring.  

And in true supermarket feud fashion, they took to Twitter where it really all blew up. There were cake-related insults and puns flying all over the place as the British public joined in on the action and the hashtag ColinvsCuthbert was trending. It is the 21st century after all. 

It seems to have all resolved now though, with limited editions of both Colin and Cuthbert making their way onto shelves in support of Teenage Cancer Trust, a charity Aldi supports, and Macmillian Cancer Support, a charity M&S supports. The aim, according to the official Aldi Twitter, was to ‘raise money for charity, not lawyers.’ We at the Curious Times are all in support of coming together (social distancing still in place of course) and supporting great causes. Don’t get us wrong, we loved the drama and got a great laugh out of it but we’re happy Colin and Cuthbert can put their few differences aside and focus on the important stuff.