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Clip description
This clip contains three short advertisements, all with the jingle 'sing toora-lay it’s a Milk Tray day today’. The first is set in a fairground with a couple riding on a carousel. The man offers the woman Milk Tray chocolates and, over the soundtrack, male and female voices sing about the chocolate’s creamy centres.
In the second advertisement a woman gets ready to hit 'the high spots … for an evening of fun’. A box of Cadbury’s Milk Tray chocolates is in her lap and, as she eats one, a male voice-over says 'he likes them, she likes them’.
In the final ad a man in a telephone booth argues with a woman on the phone. After hanging up, he holds up a box of Milk Tray chocolates and says to camera, 'Lucky I’ve got these’. Next, he embraces the woman he was arguing with, holding the Milk Tray box behind her back. He winks and the ad concludes with the jingle.
Curator’s notes
What is appealing about a good jingle is also what quickly becomes annoying – it sticks in your memory! The bubbly musical element in these advertisements introduces the idea that Milk Tray chocolates have a transformative potential to brighten and enliven the world. The everyday becomes a 'Milk Tray day’ – whether having fun (ad one), a fun night out (ad two), or a fun night in (ad three).
The third advertisement, where the man placates his date with a box of Milk Tray chocolates, uses the catchphrase 'he likes Milk Tray, she likes Milk tray’. In this context, their reasons for liking the chocolates are different – they rescue him from trouble, but she appreciates they’re a gift and likes them because, well, they’re chocolates. One of the slogans for Cadbury’s Roses chocolates from the late 1960s was 'when you get a box of Roses chocolates, you’ve got yourself a man’. This last Milk Tray ad contains the formula of men giving and women receiving which runs throughout many of these advertisements.
