Cadbury is facing backlash as religious groups accuse the brand of erasing Easter by advertising chocolate eggs as "gesture eggs" in one of its discount stores.

A display in the Springfields Outlet in Spalding, Lincolnshire offered customers a deal on "gesture eggs".

A children's event at the outlet store has also sparked uproar as its advert includes no reference to Easter.

The removal of the word "Easter" has provoked anger among the Christian community.

Reacting to the "gesture eggs", one social media user said: "The world’s gone."

It is understood that "Easter" is still used in other areas of Cadbury’s advertising.

"If it wasn’t for Easter, we wouldn’t have a reason for Easter eggs,” Tim Dieppe, the head of public policy at Christian Concern told The Telegraph.

"So I’m wondering why Cadbury wants to erase the connection between Easter and eggs, because if people stop celebrating Easter then they might stop buying Easter eggs."

He added: "I’m surprised that they are avoiding saying the word ‘Easter’, as that’s the time of year – it’s the Easter holidays, the Easter festival – and I’m surprised they’d want to avoid reference to Easter with things like this."