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Fact check: PayDay candy bar is not changing its name

The claim: The PayDay candy bar is changing its name because it offends the unemployed

PayDay lovers can take a bite of relief: An old rumor about the candy bar changing its name is just nuts.

The claim, which has circulated online since summer 2020, resurfaced in several recent Facebook posts.

"PAYDAY CANDY BAR IS CHANGING IT'S NAME BECAUSE IT'S OFFENSIVE TO PEOPLE WITHOUT JOBS," reads the text of a July 12 post.

The Facebook post, which has been shared more than 9,700 times, was likely intended as a joke. But some users didn't take it that way.

"Sound(s) about right (in) these crazy times," one commenter wrote.

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This claim also spread on other social media platforms. But there is no evidence the company that makes PayDay is changing the candy bar's name. The claim originated on a website where people share jokes.

USA TODAY reached out to the Facebook user who shared the post for comment.

No official announcement of name change

The Hershey Co., which produces PayDay, has not made any official announcements that it's changing the candy bar's name. USA TODAY reached out to the company for comment.

In February, Snopes, an independent fact-checking website, debunked the meme. The website reported that, at the time of publishing, Hershey had not made any announcement about changing the candy bar's name. USA TODAY could not find any more recent announcements from the company, which has produced PayDay since 1996.

In Snopes' fact-check, it noted that the meme was posted to AmericasBestPics.com, a site intended for users to share jokes. But the joke has since been shared on social media without any indication that it's made-up.

Our rating: Satire

Based on our research, we rate as SATIRE the claim that the PayDay candy bar is changing its name because it offends the unemployed. The meme was likely intended as a joke, but some social media users took it at face value. The company that produces the candy bar has not made any official announcement of any name changes.

Our fact-check sources:

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: Hershey's PayDay candy bar name isn't changing