Cheese company slammed for depiction of Cerne Abbas Giant

‘Remove his member and he is just a white line on the hillside’: Fury as cheese company depicts famous Cerne Abbas Giant without his oversized phallus

• Oxford Cheese Company was slammed for ‘defacing’ the Cerne Abbas Giant
• Firm suggested the move was an attempt to keep label from looking cluttered

A cheese company has been slammed for depicting the famous Cerne Abbas Giant on their packaging without his oversized phallus.

Locals criticised Oxford Cheese Company for ‘defacing’ the club-wielding giant on the label of its Cerne Abbas Man vintage cheddar.

They compared castrating Cerne Abbas to ‘throwing paint over Nelson’s column’ and claim the marketing decision has left them ‘incandescent with rage’.

But company has suggested that the manhood may have been removed in attempt to keep the image on the packaging from appearing too cluttered. 

The criticisms come after the cheese producer had previously upset the people of Dorset by ‘culturally appropriating’ the chalk figure to help sell their cheese.

The Oxford Cheese Company has been slammed for depicting the famous Cerne Abbas Giant on their packaging without his oversized phallus

The 180ft tall figure, which has a 35ft manhood, is one of Dorset’s most beloved landmarks. The hillside figure was created by the Anglo-Saxons in the 8th century as a tribute to their god of health ‘Helith’

The people of the historic village of Cerne Abbas are livid at that Oxford Cheese Company ‘made a mockery’ of the community’s longstanding fertility symbol.

Vic Irvine, head brewer at Cerne Abbas Brewery which uses a picture of the giant in all his glory on its branding, said: ‘I think it’s abhorrent to castrate him. If they are taking his manhood away then I hope nobody buys it.

‘It shows no regard for our county. We should call them the Cambridge Cheese Company and see how they like it.

‘We love our giant here and defacing him like this is like throwing paint over Nelson’s Column. It is clearly a binary giant who has a large phallus. It’s that simple.

‘If you don’t like it, don’t use our giant. The whole thing makes me really cross, I’m incandescent with rage.’

Alistair Chisholm, the mayor of nearby Dorchester, described the packaging as ‘making a mockery’ of the Dorset landmark.

He said: ‘That’s just wrong. The whole point is that he is depicted the way he is, which is what makes people come to see him.

‘It makes a mockery of it. It’s like filling in Durdle Door and making it a solid block of rock. His member is what makes him magnificent. It would just be plain wrong to make him amorphous.

‘The whole point is that it provokes a reaction. Remove his member and he is just a white line on the hillside.’

Local councillor Jill Hayes said: ‘The fact that they have chopped his bits off is very strange. It’s even stranger that they would use our iconic landmark instead of one of their own. Any coverage of our landmarks is wonderful but it is nonetheless odd that they would use one of ours.’

Vic Irvine, (pictured) head brewer at Cerne Abbas Brewery which uses a picture of the giant in all his glory on its branding, said ‘it’s abhorrent to castrate him’

Locals criticised Oxford Cheese Company for ‘defacing’ the club-wielding man on the label of its Cerne Abbas Man vintage cheddar. They compared castrating the giant to ‘throwing paint over Nelson’s column’ and claim the marketing decision has left them ‘incandescent with rage’

The 180ft tall figure, which has a 35ft manhood, is one of Dorset’s most beloved landmarks.

The hillside figure was created by the Anglo-Saxons in the 8th century as a tribute to their god of health ‘Helith’.

It is seen as a fertility symbol due to its phallus and courting couples have been known to go there under the cover of darkness in the hope of getting pregnant.

A spokesman for the company suggested the phallus was removed to keep keep the product packaging from becoming ‘cluttered’.

Paul Watson, cellar master for Oxford Cheese Company, said: ‘The original owner of the company chose that image because it is so memorable. We use it on our own brand west country style cheddar.

‘I’m not sure exactly why he isn’t whole on some of the cheeses but I suspect it is to make sure the label doesn’t get too cluttered. On larger cheeses I think all of him is included.’

Source: Read Full Article