The grandson of the man who invented Reese's Peanut Butter Cups has drummed up controversy after accusing the brand of "quietly replacing" the proper ingredients.
On February 14, Brad Reese made a scathing post on LinkedIn in the form of an open letter directed at Todd Scott, the manager of corporate brand and editorial at The Hershey Company.
In it, he alleged that Reese's "identity is being rewritten...by formulaic decisions that replace Milk Chocolate with compound coatings and Peanut Butter with peanut-butter-style crèmes across multiple REESE'S products."
"How does The Hershey Company continue to position REESE’S as its flagship brand, a symbol of trust, quality and leadership, while quietly replacing the very ingredients (Milk Chocolate + Peanut Butter) that built REESE'S trust in the first place?" he asked. "It’s about whether REESE'S, the world’s No. 1 chocolate brand, is being protected or diluted."
The post was one of many Reese has posted to LinkedIn recently about his distaste for the company's recent changes.
The post was one of many Reese has posted to LinkedIn recently about his distaste for the company's recent changes.
A family legacy
Reese is far from the first person to accuse a corporation of making its product worse, but the fact that he's the grandson of H.B. Reese himself wound up giving his accusations more attention than your average poster.
In fact, his remarks drummed up enough online attention that The Hershey Company, which bought Reese's in 1963, issued a response.
"As we’ve grown and expanded the Reese’s product line, we make product recipe adjustments that allow us to make new shapes, sizes and innovations that Reese’s fans have come to love and ask for, while always protecting the essence of what makes Reese’s unique and special: the perfect combination of chocolate and peanut butter," they said in a statement.
According to the NY Post, Reese even caused enough of a kerfuffle that family members have pleaded with him to stop "embarrassing" the family and have tried to discredit him.
But Reese doesn't seem to be backing down. He told the Associated Press that he threw away a new product from the company, Reese's Mini Hearts, because the candy "was not edible."
Social media picks sides
Despite Hershey's carefully worded claim that they protect "the essence" of the candy, a lot of folks online agreed with what Reese had to say.
"I'm always saying how the chocolate part has been tasting different the past couple years, it's too sweet and doesn't melt away the same," wrote X user @ItWas_FatedToBe. "Also feel like the chocolate to peanut butter ratio changed, the peanut butter part was my favorite, but it feels like they have less and less."
"That was my favorite candy back in 2006-2007. Then all of a sudden they started tasting different — chalky, not as rich. So now I don't eat them anymore," @fannielouise agreed.
But despite a large number of folks agreeing with Reese about the candy tasting different in recent years, the conversation took a sharp turn when people looked at his actual statement a little more closely.
If you're going to denounce making something worse for profit, well... allegedly using ChatGPT to make your point is certainly a choice.
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