Cadbury Dairy Milk

Cadbury Dairy Milk is a brand of milk chocolate currently manufactured by Cadbury, except in the United States where it is made by The Hershey Company.^[1] It was introduced in the United Kingdom in 1905 and now consists of a number of products. Every product in the Dairy Milk line is made with exclusively milk chocolate. In 2014, Dairy Milk was ranked the best selling chocolate bar in the UK.^[2]

History

In June 1905 in England, Cadbury made its first Dairy Milk bar, with a higher proportion of milk than previous chocolate bars, and it became the company's best selling product by 1914. George Cadbury Junior, responsible for the development of the bar, has said "All sorts of names were suggested: Highland Milk, Jersey and Dairy Maid. But when a customer’s daughter suggested Dairy Milk, the name stuck."^[3] Fruit and Nut was introduced as part of the Dairy Milk line in 1926, soon followed by Whole Nut in 1933. By this point, Cadbury's was the brand leader in the United Kingdom.^[4] In 1928, Cadbury's introduced the "glass and a half" slogan to accompany the Dairy Milk bar, to advertise the bar's higher milk content.^[5]

In September 2012, Cadbury made the decision to change the shape of the bar chunks to a more circular shape in order to reduce the weight. The bar had not seen such a significant change in shape since 1905.

Since 2007 Cadbury had a trademark in the United Kingdom for the distinctive purple colour (Pantone 2865C) of its chocolate bar wrappers,^[6] originally introduced in 1914 as a tribute to Queen Victoria.^[7] In October 2013, however, an appeal by Nestlé succeeded in overturning that court ruling.^[8]

Bars

A Dairy Milk Caramel bar in its foil wrapper

The original Dairy Milk bar ("with a glass and a half of fresh milk") was launched in 1905. Variant bars include caramel, "fruit & nut" (a bar with raisins and almonds), "whole nut" (with hazelnuts) and a bar with a Turkish delight centre. Dairy Milk Ritz, a bar with salty Ritz crackers was launched in the United Kingdom in 2014. Alongside this new bar, Dairy Milk with Lu Biscuits was also launched. A Vegemite flavoured bar, which consists of milk chocolate, caramel, and Vegemite (5%), was launched in Australia in 2015.

Advertising

Pre-2007 advertising

Cadbury has always tried to keep a strong association with milk, with slogans such as "a glass and a half of full milk in every half pound" and advertisements that feature a glass of milk pouring out and forming the bar.

In 2004, Cadbury started a series of television advertisements in the United Kingdom and Ireland featuring a human and an animal (representing the human's happiness) debating whether to eat one of a range of included bars.

Glass and a Half Full Productions (2007–2011)

In 2007, Cadbury launched a new advertising campaign entitled Gorilla, from a new in-house production company called "Glass And A Half Full Productions".^[9] The advert was premièred during the season finale of Big Brother 2007, and consists of a gorilla at a drum kit, drumming along to the Phil Collins song "In the Air Tonight".^[10] It is supposed to relate the joy of playing drums to that of eating a chocolate bar.^[11] The advert has now become extremely popular with over five million views on YouTube, and put the Phil Collins hit back into the UK charts.

On 28 March 2008, the second Dairy Milk advert produced by Glass and a Half Full Productions aired. The ad, entitled 'Trucks' features several trucks at night on an empty runway at an airport racing to the tune of Queen's "Don't Stop Me Now".^[12] The ad campaign ran at the same time as the problems at Heathrow Terminal 5 with baggage handling; in the advert baggage was scattered across the runway.^[13]

On 5 September 2008, the Gorilla advert was relaunched with a new soundtrack – Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart" – a reference to online mash-ups of the commercial. Similarly, a version of the truck advert appeared, using Bon Jovi's song "Livin' on a Prayer". Both remakes premiered once again during the finale of Big Brother 2008.^[14]

In January 2009, 'Eyebrows', the third advert in the series, was released, of two children moving their eyebrows up and down rapidly to a set electro-funk beat: "Don't Stop the Rock" by Freestyle.^[15]

In April 2010, a fourth advert aired, entitled 'Chocolate Charmer', containing a scientist mixing milk and chocolate to make a dairy milk bar to the tune of "The Only One I Know" by The Charlatans. This was subtly different to the others as it did not feature the 'A Glass and a Half Full Production' title card at the start.

In April 2011, a fifth advert aired, known as 'Charity Shop' or 'Dancing Clothes', featuring dancing clothes at a charity shop to the tune of "We Don't Have to Take Our Clothes Off" by Jermaine Stewart. This exposed the song to a new generation who downloaded the track and returned the song to the UK Top 40 so far reaching no. 29. This ad also marks the return of the Glass and a Half Full title card.

Glass and a Half Full Records

A new 'record label' was launched as part of the Glass and a Half Full Productions campaign. The first song released was Zingolo featuring Tinny, to promote Fairtrade Dairy Milk. A full music video was made incorporating the 60 second ads, as well as a Facebook page.

Joyville (2012–present)

The 2012 campaign focuses on an 'organisation made to bring joy to people'. Chocolate fountains were put in shopping centres such as Westfield London and the first ad focused on the relaunch of Dairy Milk Bubbly. During the campaign in 2012, Cadbury Dairy Milk was launched in new flavours such as Toffee Popcorn, Golden Biscuit Crunch, an exclusive to Sainsburys, Nutty Caramel and also Cadbury Dairy Milk with Oreo. Along with the new flavours, Cadbury also launched two new Bubbly bars including a mini version and a Mint Bubbly. Cadbury has also launched Crispello and most recently launched "Marvellous Creations" in the UK. In addition, Cadbury also brought the Joyville concept into Asia, where Singapore Bloggers were invited to join in and spread the love.^[16]

In 2014, Joyville was replaced with the "Free The Joy" campaign. The song in a television advert is "Yes Sir, I Can Boogie" by Baccara.^[17] A new design was launched for Dairy Milk (and its variants) inviting consumers to scan an on-pack QR code and visit a website featuring "Free The Joy" moments.

Recalls

Cadbury was fined £1 million in July 2007 due to its products having been found to have been at risk of infection with salmonella (at a factory in Marlbrook, Herefordshire). They spent a further £30 million decontaminating the factory.^[18]

On 14 September 2007, Cadbury Schweppes investigated a manufacturing error over allergy warnings, recalling for the second time in two years thousands of chocolate bars. A printing mistake at the Keynsham factory resulted in the omission of nut allergy labels from 250g Dairy Milk Double Chocolate bars.

The 2008 Chinese milk scandal affected Cadbury, when much of the Cadbury Dairy Milk manufactured in mainland China was tainted with melamine. Although it can be safely used in plastic manufacturing, melamine is toxic, particularly to infants.^[19]

See also

• List of chocolate bar brands

References

External links

• Cadbury UK