Last updated: July 3, 2026
Editor’s note: this is the 3 Media Web April Fools’ post. Our actual rates are still billed in regular, non-chocolate dollars.
TL;DR: 3 Media Web is (not really) ditching invoices to accept Cadbury eggs as payment for our custom web design and website support services. It’s a joke — our annual Easter tradition — but the punchline rides on a real trend: chocolate eggs really have gotten smaller and pricier. Read on for the bit, then keep paying us in money.
Are We Actually Accepting Chocolate Eggs as Payment?
No — this is satire, published every April 1st as part of 3 Media Web’s long-running April Fools’ tradition. We still invoice in U.S. dollars, and your website project is safe from the candy aisle. With that disclaimer cracked open, here is the story we wish were true.
Under the (fictional) direction of 3 Media Web’s Director of Business Operations, Stephanie Smith, our clients can now pay for the services of 3 Media Web and our team using a new currency: Cadbury eggs. For the sake of diversification, we will accept all forms of Cadbury eggs — creme eggs, caramel eggs, and chocolate creme eggs. We’ll even accept mini eggs (in double quantities, of course).
Why We’re So Egg-cited About Our New Currency
The pitch for chocolate currency is simple: it is a “stable store of value” that only goes up in price. There was some initial resistance to this new business decision. Our CEO, Marc Avila, for example, was shocked. “Why would we be accepting chocolate eggs?” she asked. “Kinder chocolate is so much tastier.”
Smith assured Avila that German chocolate would be harder to acquire, leading to cash flow (now called “egg flow”) issues, and would not hold up as a stable store of value the way chocolate eggs do. She pointed out that Easter chocolate keeps getting more expensive for less product. That part is genuinely true. According to a 2025 investigation by the Australian consumer group CHOICE, reported by The Guardian (April 2025), a bag of Cadbury hollow Easter eggs shrank from 24 eggs (408g) to 22 eggs (374g) while the price rose from $12.50 to $15 — about 31% more per 100g in a single year. We rest our (completely unserious) case.
What Is Shrinkflation, and Why Does It Power This Joke?
Shrinkflation is when a product quietly gets smaller while the price stays the same or climbs — so you pay more per gram without the shelf price making it obvious. The chocolate-egg example above is a textbook case: fewer eggs, less weight, higher cost. The whole bit works because that squeeze is real and familiar, which is exactly why an absurd “chocolate currency” lands as a joke instead of a non-sequitur.
Why Do Brands and Agencies Run April Fools’ Campaigns?
Done well, an April Fools’ post is low-stakes brand storytelling: it shows personality, rewards loyal readers, and signals confidence — you only poke fun at yourself when the real work speaks for itself. The rule of thumb we use: keep it obviously false, keep it on-brand, and make the punchline harmless. A good test is whether a new prospect could read it, smile, and still trust you with a serious project the next day.
That balance is what we watch for most often in our own work: the teams with the strongest brands are usually the ones secure enough to have a little fun, precisely because their websites, support, and reporting are buttoned-up the other 364 days a year. Personality converts best when it sits on top of substance, not in place of it.
The Team Is Coming Out of Their Shells
With this new form of payment, we’re also restructuring the team to grow our cache of chocolate eggs in case of market downturns. We’ve realigned the company structure, moving away from the agency model and toward an egg-holding company — something that more closely resembles an Easter basket.
Our Tech Services team, for example, is now the Egg Hunt Services team. Rather than responding to client support tickets and hunting for bugs, the Egg Hunt Services team will field leads on bulk quantities of chocolate eggs and search for the harder-to-find varieties that had limited runs. Here is the (very serious) acquisitions watchlist:
| Rare Creme Egg variety | Where it was sold | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Berry Creme Egg | Australia (short run) | Discontinued |
| Double Chocolate Creme Egg | New Zealand | Discontinued in the 1990s |
| Screme Egg (Halloween) | UK seasonal | Discontinued in 2015 |
| Giant Creme Egg | UK | Discontinued in 2006 |
If you have a verified lead on any row above, the Egg Hunt Services team would like a word.
Our New Business Strategy Can’t Be Beaten, Scrambled, or Fried
Leadership is confident this acquisition strategy beats betting on the internet — which, as everyone knows, is a fad anyway. There have been some concerns about our current Cadbury cache, and many claim it is already shrinking. When asked, Smith said, “We’re definitely not going to be eating any of our precious stores of chocolate eggs, not even the caramel ones. This is a store of value, not a commodity to be eaten.”
Editor’s Note: While answering this question, Smith was wiping chocolate from the corner of her mouth and pushing a large pile of wrappers off her desk.
Cracking On With Our Real Business Focus
Back in reality, none of your projects change — we keep designing, developing, and growing websites exactly as before, and we keep taking dollars. The joke works because the people behind it do serious work the other 364 days a year. If you want the non-satirical version of 3 Media Web, that is where the custom web design and ongoing hosting, maintenance, and support teams come in.
We have a soft spot for this kind of thing, and so does our team. If you enjoyed the bit, you’ll probably like meeting the humans behind it: read about how 3 Media Web landed on the Inc. 5000 list of fast-growing companies. Same culture, fewer wrappers.
And if you do happen to have a lead on large quantities of chocolate eggs — or one of those harder-to-find varieties — you know who to email. She has assured the team she will forward any leads to the right place. (She will not.)
