Can chocolate solve racism? A look at the rise and fall of Cadbury’s Unity chocolate bar

Akvile Puluikyte

In august, chocolate brand Cadbury released a limited-edition chocolate to celebrate India’s Independence Day. The Cadbury Unity Bar was presented as the first ever chocolate in India to have four different types of chocolate in one bar: dark, blended, milk and white – all in order to celebrate being united in diversity.

A sweet idea

The advertisement for this special chocolate was released in an Indian newspaper - The Economic Times.

Source

Interestingly, the advertisements in the newspaper included headlines in different languages. Normally, the advertisements in India are published in the most common language – Hindi, but Cadbury decided to use different languages for different regions of the country: Kannada for the Mumbai edition, Telugu in the Delhi edition and Marathi in the Bengaluru edition. The initial communication of this campaign was done very well for a number of reasons. Firstly, the timing of the campaign – India’s Independence Day was chosen wisely – to show that the chocolate is celebrating the history of the country. The representations of the different languages, especially when they are not usually seen in the media also made a really big impact and it generated a lot of positive messages on social media in India. 

Screenshot from Twitter @beastoftraal

From India to the rest of the world

Recent research by Christy and Tuten (2015) showed that social media is a great tool for increasing brand awareness and consumer engagement. Cadbury’s use of social media is a very good example of that. Additionally to the advertisements in the newspaper, Cadbury also announced the limited-edition chocolate on their social media channels like Twitter, Instagram as well as posting a video of the campaign on Youtube.

The original product was only released in India, however as the campaign was shared on social media, people all over the world became aware of it creating both positive and negative responses. The unique idea of the chocolate was seen as a huge success in the media – Cadbury didn’t issue a press release or something similar, however it managed to create a big buzz all over the online media. A lot of online news outlets jumped in to talk about this exclusive chocolate and at first all of the articles were very positive and encouraging. 

However, it wasn’t all that great, soon the company started receiving negative comments on social media. People mocked the four-coloured chocolate bar as if it could solve racism, others attacked the brand saying that the bar itself was racist. 

Screenshot from Twitter @prashantrao

The bitter aftermath

Funnily enough, after the backlash on social media, more news outlets got interested in the campaign. That is not that surprising, knowing that the media tends to publish stories that are seen as more negative. As research by Schafraad, vanZoonen, & Verhoeven (2016) showed, such factors as ‘controversy‘ and ‘negative consequences‘ are more news worthy than, for example, ‘positive consequences‘. It is clear to see that most media outlets only got interested in the campaign once it created a controversy on social media. 

As for the response to this backlash, the company again did not issue an official statement or a press release. They only responded to a couple of comments on social media:

Screenshot from Twitter @CadburyUK

The way Cadbury should have reacted to the backlash is up for debate. On one hand, I appreciate that they are sticking to their idea and are not really paying attention to the bad comments, but on the other hand, they should have addressed the controversy in some official way.

Not releasing a statement, not apologizing or not providing any additional information has actually caused a more negative tone in the media. Research by Nijkrake,Gosselt & Gutteling (2014) shows that if the company does not offer any solution or is missing positive news in the story, the media will focus on how the company is responsible for the crisis consequences. In the same study the authors say that the media often chooses to frame a crisis in a such a way that makes it look more controversial in terms of conflict. It is evident that the chocolate controversy was actually created by the news media and interestingly mostly by the Western media. 

Screenshot from The Sun

Screenshot from Newshub

Cadbury’s chocolate controversy was not such a big crisis per se, but it does show how the media can spin a controversial story from basically nothing. Cadbury could have responded more to the complaints online, however the fact that it didn’t is probably the reason why a month later no one is talking about the chocolate at all. Or better yet, not many people are even aware of this controversy. Did you know about the Unity Chocolate and what is your opinion about it? Please let me know in the comments below!

References:

Christy, A., Tuten, T. (2015) Creative Strategies in Social Media Marketing: An Exploratory Study of Branded Social Content and Consumer Engagement. Psychology & Marketing, 32(1), pp.15-27. https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.20761  

Schafraad, P., van Zoonen, W., & Verhoeven, P. (2016). The news value of Dutch corporate press releases as a predictor of corporate agenda building power. Public Relations Review, 42(3), pp.451-458. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2015.11.014

Nijkrake, J., Gosselt, J.F. & Gutteling, J.M. (2015) Competing frames and tone in corporate communication versus media coverage during a crisis. Public Relations Review, 41(1), pp.80-88. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2014.10.010

About the author:

Akvile Puluikyte is an international student at the University of Amsterdam. She finished her Media, Communication and Cultural Studies bachelor at Newcastle University and is currently in the middle of her Masters’ in Communication Science with the specialization in Corporate Communication.