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Clip description
This clip contains two 30-second advertisements for Cadbury’s Milk Tray chocolates. In the first, a young couple going to a show make the evening romantic with the purchase of Milk Tray chocolates.
The second shows a male and female hand next to each other as a narrator explains how the purchase of Milk Tray chocolates was 'a moment of inspiration’. The advertisement ends with their hands intertwined against an illustrated border of wedding bells.
Curator’s notes
These advertisements probably date from the early days of television in the mid-to-late 1950s and reflect the social conventions of the time in relation to dating, romance and marriage. Both ads focus on the characters’ hands to tell the story. In the first ad, for instance, there is only a brief glimpse of the woman’s face in profile, and we only see the back of the man’s head.
These advertisements are more reserved than the Cadbury’s ads of later years which begin to focus attention on the mouth – most commonly the woman’s mouth – and introduce into the equation the visual language of desire. Rather than feature catchy jingles, both ads are linked by the same simple, music box-style melody that evokes the innocence of first love.
