February 14 – St Valentine’s Day – is celebrated around the world as a day of romance. Since at least the 15th century, chocolate has been regarded as an aphrodisiac and associated with love. So, we’re celebrating Valentine’s Day on ASO with a selection of classic Cadbury’s chocolates TV commercials dating from the 1950s to the early 1970s.
Cadbury has always used romance to market their Milk Tray and Roses chocolates, and it’s fun to see how these ads have changed over time. In the earliest – Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate – 'A Milk Tray Day Today’ (c1955) – a stereotypically hen-pecked husband wins back his disgruntled wife with a box of chocolates and a knowing wink to the men in the audience.
Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate – 'Give Her Roses’ (1959) draws on the then popular appeal of Maurice Chevalier (who was fresh from appearing in the Academy-Award winning Gigi, 1958), with a none-too-subtle impersonation of the French romantic crooner. Both ads seem very much of their time now.
By the early 1970s, the coy hand-holding courtship of Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate – 'Remember … Cadbury’s Milk Tray’ (c1955) had given way to a more sexually explicit visual language and an appeal directly to women. Women no longer had to wait for men to give them chocolate, they could enjoy it on their own terms (see Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate – 'For All the Different Women You Are’, c1970).
Of course old ads are always appealing because they capture a bygone era. Marvel at the funky flavours (raspberry cordial! caramello deluxe!) in Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate – 'Happiness for Two’ (c1960) and the even funkier disco setting of Cadbury’s Crunchie – 'Golden Groovy Beautiful Crunchie’ (c1966).
There’s more Fifties style on display in two other commercials recently added to ASO. Take a glimpse at entertaining ’50s-style in the Schweppes drinks ad, A Matter of Taste (c1954). And cricket fans will love Keith Miller's entertaining road safety tips about how to 'top score as a pedestrian’ in The Eyes Have It (1958).
Enjoy the full range of Advertisements on ASO here. See also titles tagged chocolate and romance.
