Name: The Creme Egg hunt.

Age: The season starts in January and runs until Easter.

Appearance: Exciting, festive, sweet.

What does this hunt entail? You go to the shops, you buy a load of Cadbury Creme Eggs and you open and eat them all.

It seems to be missing an element you normally associate with hunting – the thrill of the chase, maybe. Technically, you’re searching for an elusive white chocolate Creme Egg.

Why? Because they are redeemable for prizes of up to £10,000.

In that case: tally ho! Before we set off, you should be aware of the danger.

What possible danger could come from eating a few hundred Creme Eggs between now and Easter? Childhood obesity.

Let the children worry about childhood obesity. The National Obesity Forum disagrees and has attacked Cadbury for its promotion. “We should be trying to wean children off sugar,” said the NOF chairman, Tam Fry, “not enticing them to wolf down huge quantities of chocolate.”

Nonsense. Would you blame Willy Wonka for the state of Augustus Gloop? If either of them were real, I think you probably would, yes.

What does Cadbury say? Its US parent company, Mondelēz International, insists the promotion is targeted at adults.

That’s somehow even more depressing. Indeed. Mondelēz/Cadbury has been found to have twice breached rules protecting children from junk food marketing in the past 12 months. Meanwhile, kids have been posting videos on YouTube of themselves opening piles of Creme Eggs.

How much sugar could possibly be in one Creme Egg, though? Just over six teaspoons; the maximum recommended daily intake for children is between seven and 10.

OK, but how many Creme Eggs could a kid possibly buy with, say, a weekly £6 allowance? Thirty.

Really? Tesco has just ended an offer selling two boxes for £2, or 20p an egg.

I feel a bit sick. When is Easter, anyway? This year it falls on 21 April.

You mean we’ve got another month of this? Why can’t Cadbury encourage children to be more active? It already tried that.

When? When it launched a “real treasure hunt”, telling children to “grab your metal detector and go hunting for Roman riches” on a number of suggested sites in the UK and Ireland.

What’s wrong with that? There are strict regulations in place to protect archaeological finds, so it could be against the law.

Oops. Don’t worry. It pulled the campaign on Monday.

Do say: “Good news! You won!”

Don’t say: “Your prize is more Creme Eggs!”