“This is not a stunt or an April Fool’s joke”: KitKat pushes back after brands mock viral heist story as marketing gimmick

Popular chocolate wafer candy, KitKat, has had a tough week, with 413,793 units of the chocolate bar being stolen from a truck somewhere on the way from a factory in Italy to Poland, and now the internet just can't seem to take the brand seriously.

After the news of the theft first came out, people thought it was a rumor until the chocolate company itself confirmed it through a social media post. In the official statement, they wrote,

"We can confirm that 12T of the products were stolen while in transit between our factory in Central Italy and their destination in Poland. We are working closely with local authorities and supply chain partners to investigate. The good news: there are no concerns for consumer safety, and supply is not affected."

And now the internet is accusing the chocolate makers of lying about the theft as a marketing gimmick. On April 1st, a.k.a. April Fool's Day, the internet was teeming with consumers calling it all a joke until, yet again, the brand had to clarify what happened.

"Thank you for your interest in the missing KitKats. But just to clarify, this is not a stunt, or an April Fool's joke. Someone really stole 12 tonnes of KitKats. And we really want to know where they've gone. So, we've created a Stolen KitKat Tracker that lets you check if yours is from the missing batch."

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However, they did try to take advantage of the situation by creating a tracker. The website, which can be found in the link in their Instagram bio, asks you to add the 8-digit batch number found on the back of each chocolate bar to check whether your bar is part of the stolen stock.

The controversy in itself has created a huge marketing opportunity for the brand in general.

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