Image Credit: The Hersey Company

Reese’s Pumpkins Now Come With a Warning: The Face Isn’t Real

If you’ve ever bought a Reese’s Peanut Butter Pumpkin expecting the cute little jack-o’-lantern face shown on the wrapper, Hershey has a message for you: lower your expectations.

The Hershey Company has added a new disclaimer to packages of Reese’s Peanut Butter Pumpkins ahead of Halloween, making it crystal clear that the candy inside probably won’t look like the pumpkin pictured on the front.

Right next to the picture of a Reese’s Pumpkin featuring a carved jack-o’-lantern face, the wrapper now says:

“Carving not on actual product.”

Apparently, this needed to be said.

The disclaimer comes years after a Florida woman sued Hershey, seeking $5 million over the company’s Reese’s Halloween candies. Her 2023 class-action lawsuit argued that she and other customers were misled because the Peanut Butter Pumpkins didn’t actually have the carved faces shown on the packaging.

She also took issue with other seasonal Reese’s candies, including bats, ghosts and footballs, saying the actual candy didn’t match the elaborate designs shown on the wrappers.

A judge eventually dismissed the lawsuit, finding that being disappointed by the lack of a jack-o’-lantern face didn’t amount to the kind of measurable financial loss needed to pursue the case.

Then, in 2024, another proposed class-action lawsuit made essentially the same argument. That case was also dismissed after a judge determined the plaintiffs had not shown that they paid extra for the decorative designs or that the candies were defective, worthless or had lost their economic value because they were missing the carvings.

Hershey had also argued that its packaging already suggested the carved pumpkin was more of a “decorating suggestion” than a promise of what customers would actually unwrap.

Now, Hershey appears to be taking absolutely no chances.

So this Halloween, when you unwrap your Reese’s Pumpkin and discover it looks more like a vaguely pumpkin-shaped blob than a tiny chocolate jack-o’-lantern, remember: you were warned.

And honestly, that's probably the safest legal strategy when your biggest controversy is a candy that doesn't have a face.