Sainsbury's has upset its shoppers with a novelty Christmas card joke that has been blasted as "incredibly bleak and sad."

The card features an image of cold pigs huddling together with the quote: "Don't worry, I hear we're getting some blankets this year." Unfortunately, the joke didn't go down as well as the supermarket intended.

One shopper on X (formerly Twitter), Sarf East Caff, shared the controversial card in a post with the caption: "Hello Sainsbury's. I know everyone’s sense of humour is different but I think this is the saddest, unkindest Xmas card I’ve ever seen. I wonder if you'll sell lots of them."

A Sainsbury's spokesperson has since told BristolLive: "We offer a wide range of festive cards and welcome customer feedback on this year’s designs."

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Nevertheless, many customers on social media were left unimpressed with the card, with even meat eaters admitting that the card was "pretty crass." One such shopper said: "I eat pork, but yeah. That's incredibly bleak and sad."

A second fumed: "I don't think it's funny - and I'm not even a vegetarian. Pretty crass really."

While the novelty card was certainly controversial with shoppers, it is worth mentioning that not everyone was offended, with some admitting that it was just comedy.

One such shopper wrote: "Is there anything that isn’t offensive to somebody? It’s just a joke."

Another said: "For goodness sake, humour is just that. Inevitably someone will be offended, that’s true of all comedy. Stop bowing down to such pathetic people."

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