Marks & Spencer customers mock new 'Santa's Yumnut' cronut

‘Who wants a bite of Santa’s Yumnut?’ asks retailer

(Marks & Spencer)

Marks & Spencer's shoppers have teased the retailer for launching a new cronut as part of its festive collection named "Santa's Yumnut".

The sweet treat is a cross between a croissant and a doughnut and has been covered in red icing to resemble a Santa Claus costume.

However, after tweeting about its latest product, Marks and Spencer's has been ridiculed, with people teasing the supermarket chain over how it has been marketed.

“Who wants a bite of Santa’s Yumnut™?” the company asked its 599,000 followers on Thursday.

“Our yum yum-doughnut hybrids have been given a Christmassy makeover, with delicious flaky pastry layers and a sweet Santa’s belt topping. Find them in our in store bakery.”

The tweet has since gone viral, garnering more than 4,900 retweets and 900 comments. Additionally, the word “santa” started trending on Twitter.

“Pretty sure 'Who wants a bite of Santa's Yumnut’ is sexual,” tweeted journalist and author Caitlin Moran.

“I know that's meant to be Santa's standard belt, but given the really quite misjudged name, I'd say it looks more like Santa's chastity belt,” teased comedian David Baddiel.

One person described “Who wants a bite of Santa's Yumnut?” as both the “best and worst sentence of all time”.

Another claimed that the phrase “Yumnut” had been trademarked by the retailer in January - sharing screenshots of the phrase on the government's trademark body website.

“What’s worse is they did it back in January, so they’ve had nine good long months to rethink it,” one person replied.

Even Specsavers chimed in, tweeting: “If anybody needs help popping their eyes back in after reading this, give us a shout.”

The ridicule comes after the supermarket chain was teased for launching "chip shop scraps" in tubs costing £1 each.

Scraps (otherwise known as batter bits) are pieces of batter left over in the fryer as a by-product of frying fish. They are traditionally served free of charge in chip shops.

Marks & Spencer's own version is marketed as "beer battered haddock" that is "light and crispy".

However, Twitter users ridiculed the product, with one person labelling it a "desperate attempt to appeal to northerners".

“Can’t believe they’ve gentrified scraps,” another added alongside a photograph of the product.

The Independent has contacted Marks and Spencer’s for comment.