Colin vs Cuthbert: The Caterpillar Cake Wars

We’ve all been to a Birthday Party or celebration event and looked over at the party food to see a cheeky little Chocolate Caterpillar face smiling up at us. Caterpillar Cakes are notorious with children and adults alike. However, in April, Marks and Spencer lodged an intellectual property claim with the High Court stating that Aldi’s Caterpillar cake, Cuthbert, was too similar to its own Colin the Caterpillar cake. They believe this led consumers to believe they were of the same standard and "rides on the coat-tails" of M&S's reputation. Although many other stores have produced similar cakes to Colin, the war between M & S and Aldi rages on. The team at Loop reflect on this ongoing saga of the Caterpillar Cake.

I think this so-called ‘feud’ between Colin and Cuthbert is pathetic. People need to stop being so sensitive, there is no way you could regulate all the replicas in every single shop. If this case is taken seriously then every single product in Lidle would be removed. Replicas and remakes, even though they may be very very obvious and made with the smallest amount of creativity possible, are a part of every industry. I think that Aldi have treated this situation exactly right, by trolling the hell out of M&S. They have taken this situation with a pinch of salt and have chosen to create a joke out of it. I think in that process, they came out stronger than before because social media has found them hilarious. However, Aldi’s social media accounts need a raise. - Tegan

This is one of the best examples of how bored three lockdowns has made everyone. Colin the Caterpillar is a tradition, a staple of British culture, and I don’t think that anyone genuinely cares where it originated from. The fanciest caterpillar cake I’ve ever had was from Tesco’s. Corporations like M&S want to claim it as their own, and Aldi is using their twitter to highlight how silly this entire situation is- whoever wins the legal battle, I think everyone will have lost a little respect for both sops when this all blows over. Two teams of people pitted against each other because their cakes have the same face sounds like something you’d hear when picking up a little sister from nursery. If M&S are so desperate to keep their high standard, maybe they should start with being more mature. - Isabelle

Personally I think this ‘episode’ is quite unnecessary as everyone has their own preferences and personal tastes. Some people will continue to buy the M and S version and some people will buy different variations. - Sulena

I honestly don’t think this debate matters in the grand scheme of things. It’s a corporate battle over an IP that garners them some extra 0s on the CEO’s paycheck. Colin the caterpillar and Cuthbert should become a property of the masses, so that everyone can enjoy this cake without having to worry about inflated prices or shoddy craftsmanship.

M&S vs Aldi- The rivalry between the caterpillars has sparked debate due to the knock-off Cuthbert cake returning to shelves, M&S’s trademark design and Colin character has been sabotaged by an imitation of the iconic product favoured by the nation since the 1990’s. Aldi has been targeted by a lawsuit due to the similarities between the products, however this has only brought more attention to Cuthbert despite the slander, effectively undermining the initial purpose of the lawsuit by attempting to remove the crawling imposter, which has failed miserably. Cuthbert has consequently taken the negative publicity and spun it into a charity case, announcing a limited edition hitting shelves in the near future.

Cuthbert has Taken Over the internet as The Aldi Twitter released high quality memes that were shared across all social media platforms. In my opinion Aldi Has won the fight over the caterpillar cake wars (Colin still tastes the best) This whole debacle has been overall positive for both parties as there has been a high amount of publicity and even a hashtag (caterpillarsforcancer) that upholds both brands to a new respect; funding a charity from a public lawsuit makes a very wholesome scenario. - E I personally don’t know why this made it to the news. Crazy to think people in the UK care so much about a cake.

We all know it- Cuthbert is a remake of Colin the caterpillar. But isn't that what Aldi does best? Rebrand all of the products that we love for cheaper? So why has Cuthbert been stopped on his journey to the shelves…? M&S have recently released an intellectual property claim on their signature caterpillar cake, which like most other products has been replicated and reproduced by Aldi. Shurely then the whole of Aldi's store should be sued then? Well not exactly, and this is because Aldi makes sure to cleverly adhere to the intellectual property rights law throughout the production of their look-alike products. So why didn't Cuthburt pass the barrier? M&S have argued that this is because Cuthbert is apparently misleading his customers who see the cakes as having the same value. However, many believe that M&S is just trying to protect its iconic cake although Aldi are just trying to do what they do best - copy. So who's right? Well yes, Cuthbert is extremely similar to Collin which could be argued that the cake is more of a copy then a reference to Collin, angering the primary creator of the cakes idea, M&S. But on the other hand, Aldi has masses of product remakes on its shelves, all of which look identical to their parent brands, so maybe suing Aldi for Cuthbert is a personal allegation to Aldi, as the brands are of course still competitors. Overall, this court case has existed to fuel the fires of social media and has appeared within many news headlines, giving both of the cakes acknowledgement and publication. So maybe this case has cheered us all up during lockdown and is more entertaining then it is serious. - Bella

In my opinion, cake is cake. It doesn’t matter what it looks like or what brand it’s from. And yes M&S originally created it back in 1990 but that doesn’t mean other brands can’t utilise the same idea. I am not fussed about any of this and it is slightly worrying that it made the news. Whether it's from M&S, Morrisons, Aldi, Co-Op, Waitrose, Asda, Sainsburys or Tesco - cake is cake. - Grace I believe that it doesn't matter where the cake comes from as it all tastes the same and don't think that the idea of using a caterpillar as a cake should not be copyrighted. - Annaliese