Fake News: Hershey's Did NOT Replace Kisses With More Pure Sidehugs For Christian Market

Fact Check

  • by: Maarten Schenk
Fake News: Hershey's Did NOT Replace Kisses With More Pure Sidehugs For Christian Market

Did Hershey's replace their iconic 'Kisses' chocolate candies with something called 'Sidehugs' to appease Christian consumers? Of course not, the whole thing is satire and was not real.

The amusing hoax started with an article published on March 26, 2018 by The Babylon Bee titled "Hershey's Replaces 'Kisses' With More Pure 'Sidehugs' For Christian Market" (archived here) which opened:

DERRY TOWNSHIP, PA--In a new attempt to court the Christian market, the Hershey Company unveiled Monday its brand-new "Hershey's Sidehugs™️," a Kiss™️-like chocolate that promises to be more pure and only slightly less fulfilling.

"Almost as satisfying as the real thing, now with 100% more purity," a Hershey's representative said in a press conference. "We've removed any hint of a 'kiss' from this product completely. It's now a no-nonsense chocolate that won't cause you to stumble."

Urban Dictionary explains what a "Side Hug" is:

Urban Dictionary: Christian Side Hug

A form of greeting promoted by some Christian groups in which two parties hug by wrapping one arm around the shoulder of the other person, as if posing for a photo, rather than the traditional "front hug," or wrapping both arms around the shoulders or waist from the front.

It seems to have originated with this abstinence-promoting video some eight years ago, which was heavily ridiculed at the time:

But atheist chocolate lovers who only saw this summary on social media might have feared the story was real:

Hershey's Replaces 'Kisses' With More Pure 'Sidehugs' For Christian Market

DERRY TOWNSHIP, PA--In a new attempt to court the Christian market, the Hershey Company unveiled Monday its brand-new "Hershey's Sidehugs™️," a Kiss™️-like chocolate that promises to be more pure and only slightly less fulfilling. "Almost as satisfying as the real thing, now with 100% more purity," a Hershey's representative said in a press conference. "We've ...

We wrote about babylonbee.com and their Christian-themed satire before, read our most recent articles that mention the site:

"The Babylon Bee" comes with following dislaimer on every page:

The Babylon Bee is Your Trusted Source For Christian News Satire.

Some of their greatest past hits include:

With a track record like that it is clear that you shouldn't take anything posted on the site seriously and you definitely shouldn't confuse it with real news.

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  Maarten Schenk

Lead Stories co-founder Maarten Schenk is our resident expert on fake news and hoax websites. He likes to go beyond just debunking trending fake news stories and is endlessly fascinated by the dazzling variety of psychological and technical tricks used by the people and networks who intentionally spread made-up things on the internet.  He can often be found at conferences and events about fake news, disinformation and fact checking when he is not in his office in Belgium monitoring and tracking the latest fake article to go viral.

Read more about or contact Maarten Schenk

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