Commercial for Cadburys Dairy Milk ‘Chunky’

Cadbury Dairy Milk is a brand of chocolate bar, that is made by Cadbury plc and is sold in several countries around the world and first went on sale in the United Kingdom in 1905.

2003 relaunch
In 2003 Cadbury made Dairy Milk into a family brand by taking existing brands – Caramel, Wispa, Fruit & Nut, and Whole Nut – and marketing them as Dairy Milk sub-brands; for example Wispa was phased out and replaced by “Dairy Milk Bubbly”. The Dairy Milk brand was also introduced as an endorsement brand on children’s products such as Cadbury Buttons and Freddo. At this time the entire Cadbury Dairy Milk range was given a packaging revamp (along with all other Cadbury brands) incorporating a new “swirl” around the Cadbury signature logo; the company name had also recently been changed from “Cadbury’s” to “Cadbury”. By 2006 there were fifteen Dairy Milk sub-brands produced in the UK, including Shortcake Biscuit, Wafer, Orange Chips, Mint Chips, Crispies, and Creme Egg. In the subsequent two years, however, the majority of these new sub-brands proved unsuccessful and were discontinued. In 2008 “Apricot Crumble Crunch” and “Cranberry and Granola” were released as new Dairy Milk variants.

The current UK range consists of Dairy Milk, Caramel, Fruit & Nut, Whole Nut, Turkish, Double Choc, Apricot Crumble Crunch, Cranberry & Granola, Bubbly (larger blocks only) and Crunchie Bits (larger blocks only).

 

Production
Many of the newer Dairy Milk varieties are now manufactured in the Republic of Ireland, France and Poland. Dairy Milk itself is also manufactured in France and these products are sold in the UK. In early 2006, Cadbury changed the weight of its medium bars from 200g to 250g, effectively phasing out the 200g “Wafer” bar, as the way it was manufactured did not allow for it to be manufactured as a 250g bar.[citation needed] Several reformulated versions are sold in the United States as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration does not allow products that replace cocoa butter with vegetable fat to be called chocolate.

In Australia, Cadbury Dairy Milk was reformulated in 2006 and again in 2009, with the addition of palm oil as a replacement for some cocoa butter. This occurred in conjunction with a weight reduction of the standard block from 250g to 200g. There has been some outcry over the reduction in block size while the price stayed the same, although Cadbury states that the wholesale cost per gram should be the same and the retailers may not have adjusted their prices.   In August 2009, Cadbury announced it would return to a Cocoa Butter only formula due to a poor response from consumers.

Dairy Milk is sold in the United States under the Cadbury label, but it is manufactured by The Hershey Company in Pennsylvania.

2009 relaunch of individual brands
Following a trial in October 2007, the “Cadbury Wispa” brand was re-introduced in the UK and the Republic of Ireland. Due to a positive response, Wispa is again available on a permanent basis, and now the Dairy Milk Bubbly brand is exclusive to the large block format.

In spring 2009, following the success of the Wispa relaunch as an individual product brand, Cadbury Dairy Milk Caramel was relaunched, with the “Caramel” name re-emphasised as the main on-pack brand, and the “Dairy Milk” brand de-emphasised. The iconic “Caramel bunny” was re-introduced during this period with the slogan “Still got it”. The rest of the Cadbury range is slowly being revamped with new or refreshed packaging as part of this reduction in emphasis on the Dairy Milk brand and the reintroduction of individual product brands. Simultaneously, Cadbury have also introduced a new look Dairy Milk logo and reintroduced the gold “Cadbury” logo, reminiscent of the logo prior to the “swirled” Cadbury logo of 2003. Cadbury Dairy Milk Buttons and Freddo have this logo.

 

Bar and a Half
In June 2009 Cadbury launched the “Cadbury Dairy Milk Bar and a Half” range as a replacement to the Cadbury Dairy Milk “8 chunk” across several Dairy Milk variants. The concept is that the bar is to be more “portionable”, so parts of the bar can be “saved for later” although the bar is the same as the old 8 chunk but in Fruit and Nut, Whole Nut and Standard. This bar has the new logo and packaging.

A similar technique has been introduced with Cadbury Double Decker and Cadbury Boost bars. However instead of larger bars, two separate bars are packaged together and are called “Duo”. Both brands received a packaging refresh at the same time.

 

Fairtrade
Cadbury secured Fairtrade certification for solid-chocolate Dairy Milk bars in the UK and Ireland in 2009, with the first bars bearing the Fairtrade Mark produced on 21 July 2009.   The company has since announced plans to roll out Fairtrade-certified Dairy Milk bars in Australia and New Zealand (and by extension Japan) in spring 2010, and in Canada that summer.

 

Pre-2007 advertising
Dairy Milk has always tried to keep a strong association with milk, with slogans such as “a glass and a half of full cream milk in every half pound” and advertisements that feature a glass of milk pouring out and forming the bar.

A campaign for the Fruit & Nut variety (“everyone’s a fruit and nutcase”) was particularly memorable and featured the writer, radio and television personality Frank Muir.

On 9 March 1976, American singer Neil Diamond performed a concert televised throughout Australia during which he did a humorous live commercial for Dairy Milk. This concert, including the ad as a bonus selection, was released on DVD on 1 July 2008.

In 2004, Cadbury started a series of television advertisements in the United Kingdom and Ireland featuring a person and an animal representing the person’s happiness debating whether to eat one of a range of bars including Dairy Milk.

Info gleaned from Wikipedia