Ferrero Rocher
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ferrero Rocher are spherical chocolate sweets made by Ferrero SpA. The sweets consist of a whole roasted hazelnut encased in a thin wafer shell filled with nutella/hazelnut cream and covered in milk chocolate and chopped hazelnuts. The sweets are individually packaged in a gold-coloured wrapper and are 73 1/3 calories apiece.
In Canada, Brazil, Hong Kong and Malaysia, Ferrero Rocher is a popular gift during the holidays, especially during Chinese New Year. Chinese culture associates the gold of the packaging with good fortune and wealth.[citation needed]
[edit] Advertising
In the UK, the product is perhaps more famous for its original TV advertisements than for its taste. It was promoted to a down-market audience as an aspirational brand by means of an Italian advertisement dubbed in English showing an ambassador's butler offering a huge piled plate of the sweets to the guests at an embassy party. Presented conventionally, this advertisement might have had no extraordinary impact - but the English-language soundtrack of the British version had a kitsch style which made the product an icon of "false aspirational" products almost immediately. The opening voice-over, "The Ambassador's receptions are noted in society for their host's exquisite taste that captivates his guests", together with the comments of "Eccellente" and "Monsieur, with these Rocher, you're really spoiling us" from guests at the reception, remain widely recognised in the UK. Further signs of the impact of this advert are that it has been parodied by a number of comedians, and that the concept of a butler wandering around holding a silver tray with a mountain of Ferrero Rocher has become a trope, and a popular stereotype of diplomacy in general.
Outside the UK the product has achieved considerable popularity without the same cultural references and associations. It is widely distributed in North American supermarkets based rather more on its merits as a pleasurable candy and less on any influences attributable to advertising.
Royal Copenhagen, Brisbane makes an ice-cream version of the chocolate also called "Ferrero Rocher".
[edit] References to the television advertisement
- "The ambassador is really spoiling us with this one!"[1]
- "The assembled press could only have thought: 'Ambassador, with these cack-handed spy antics, you are really spoiling us'."[2]
- "Like the fabled Ferrero Rocher ambassador, Nintendo is really spoiling us this year."[3]
- In Channel 4 comedy Father Ted, when a group of three bishops visited, Mrs. Doyle stacked the Ferrero Rocher in a cone shape and the bishops proclaimed, "Father Ted, with these Rocher you are really spoiling us."
In some branding studies in Italy it was remarked upon that the golden packaging was chosen in order to give an "elite" status to this kind of chocolate. In one spot in the late 1990s, Richard Gere was a testimonial for the brand.[citation needed]
In an episode of Little Britain Abroad, Bubbles Devere is seen eating a Ferrero Rocher in her husband's mansion.
[edit] Notes and references
- William Cook. Eurochoc. New Statesman. 14 February 2000.
- ^ The Meters: Rejuvenation. bbc.co.uk (2003-09-15). Retrieved on 2006-07-08.
- ^ Walsh, Nick Paton. "Rock of agents", The Guardian, 2006-01-27. Retrieved on 2006-07-08.
- ^ Stuart, Keith (2006-05-09). The pre-E3 round-up: part one. Guardian Unlimited. Retrieved on 2006-07-08.
