Cadbury's Flake TV ad banned for being too sexy
Filed under: Entertainment, Food and Drink
A TV advert for Cadbury's Flake has been banned because it is just too sexy for our screens. Executives from the chocolate company apparently thought it was so racy it would either corrupt our nation's morals, or portray Flake eaters as some kind of free-love hedonists with lives of wild abandon.
The commercial featured a gorgeous, pouting young model seduced by a Devil-like character, with the suggestion that a Flake was as tempting as Lucifer himself.
The company blew no less than £1 million on the ad. It had been planned for a prime-time slot but will never now be seen. According to the company, research showed it polarised opinion in focus groups.
It happened at the same time that the American company Kraft bought Cadbury.
A spokesman for Cadbury said: "Having researched it, we felt it wasn't working for our core target audience. You try things, but don't always pull it off and that's what happened here."
Flake's TV commercials have been among the sexiest on TV for decades. In the 1970s a commercial with Bond girl Eva Rueber-Staier was taken off the air after some more conservative-minded viewers complained that she was biting into the chocolate in an unnecessarily suggestive way.
Ten years ago, the Advertising Standards Authority received 30 complaints from the public about a national poster campaign depicting a bare-shouldered woman sucking on a bar, with the caption: "How much would you like this woman's job?"
Cadbury said the poster was innocently asking how much people would like to be paid to eat a Flake. Others saw something of an innuendo in the wording.
Two years ago the company branched out from showing young beauties in sultry poses silently enjoying Flakes. Singer Joss Stone became the new face of the campaign.
In the first advert she is seen in a recording studio before singing Flake's famous "Only the crumbliest, flakiest chocolate..." jingle during a break.
Sounds like much safer ground...
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
3-08-2010 @ 6:22PM
rob said...
Such a shame that people have so much time to waste on how a girl eats a chocolate bar. Get a life please.
Reply
3-09-2010 @ 4:39AM
Chris said...
Well wasn't the most famous flake advert of much the same gender, girl frollocking in a field with a skimpy dress seductively eating a flake? Has the world gone mad?? WHAT exactly are we being protected from here?
Reply
3-09-2010 @ 4:47AM
Al said...
'Disgusted', of Acacia Avenue, Tunbridge Wells, rules, it seems.
Reply
3-09-2010 @ 8:52AM
John said...
And it is about time that ''Disgusted from Acacia Avenue'' did indeed rule! Unfettered liberalism has brought this country to the mess it is in to day......sexploitation, crime, Islamic fundamentalism, and women who like to roll in the gutter of a week-end!
3-09-2010 @ 5:38AM
an said...
Yes, you men would like women to be used for sex in every arena, but do women always want to be used to satify men's sexual egos and become objects of sex, therfore belittled as such?
Do children need to think sexy women sell things, even bars of chocolate?
Do young girls need to think they must be always sexual for men in every way imagionable? And if they are not, they can be ridiculed and under threat of being unworthy for males?
Think before you tell people to get a life, and remember, it's not all about sex or the suggestion of sex, it's about the way people persieve people and treat them accordingly as well as sell something for what it is and not because sexy women are dripping all over it as though they are up for it.
Children deserve a better world than that! So, stick to your porn sites and leave the places kid's go for a higher thought life. Okay!!
Reply
3-09-2010 @ 6:35AM
Robert said...
Ever heard of a spell checker or education An.....?
3-09-2010 @ 7:42AM
sue said...
Why oh why do we always get a sexist moron like you AN
creeping out of the woodwork..in all of theses comment sheets..i can make my own mind up without your assistants so GET A LIFE...
3-09-2010 @ 10:45AM
harry said...
it is the people that look at these ads and say they are sexy that are perverts people have there own minds so let them say if it is sexy or not. i dont like perverts making my mind up for me. i have seen these ads and sex never crossed my mind so GET A LIFE
3-10-2010 @ 3:35AM
archerbod said...
'you men' ??? Have you not noticed how many ads these days depict young men as 'objects of sex'? Open your eyes and join the rest of the human race in the 21st century.
3-09-2010 @ 8:53AM
BRIAN said...
ASSISTANCE, ISNT EDUCATION A WONDERFULL THING ...
Reply
3-26-2010 @ 10:03AM
BringBackTheStocks said...
Sure education is a wonderful (please note correct spelling)thing. Shame you never learnt to spell such a simple word before quite rightly drawing attention to the failings of another !!!
3-09-2010 @ 9:55AM
johnboy said...
An, It`s only a bar of chocolate. You need to get some perspective, oh and you need a dicktionary!
Reply
3-09-2010 @ 3:17PM
Roger said...
Johnboy - it's spelt dikshuniry
An - you are pathetic!
3-09-2010 @ 10:33AM
mick said...
its like being in victorian times , you cant watch, this you cant do that, these ads are too sexy , what next & they on about teaching 5 year olds about sex in school now
Reply
3-09-2010 @ 10:42AM
Steve said...
Oh An (I assume you DO spell your name that way) do get off your ridiculously high horse.....
Firstly, the young lady involved wasn't tortured into doing this advert - she was paid for it. She might very well have made lots of money from it. That money may have allowed her to do all sorts of things that she might now never get the chance to do. Why is it that you feel you have the moral authority to make that decision for her? By what right do YOU determine what I - or for that matter anyone else - might assume from that advert. And the current obsession with protecting children from just about everything that could possibly influence them in later life is just pathetic -
And like it or not, An, lots and lots of women have fought for the right to look as if "they are up for it" - they do it most nights in most Spanish resorts, for a start - just who is kidding whom?
And yes, get a spell-checker - if you're going to make daft comments, at least make them using proper spelling.
Reply
3-09-2010 @ 1:23PM
S B said...
I agree with you Steve. It's often the case that those who make the most noise and get indignant over such things are frequently the ones who have the problem. Religious zealots for example who call for the censure of various individuals more often than not the ones who have the most to answer for. The phrase 'I think the lady/gentleman protests too much' springs to mind. My message to the pretentious An(n) would be if YOU are finding sexual inuendo, or the 'sexploitation' (YOUR word) of women, or the corruption of children (preposterous!), it's YOU who is having such thoughts...what would that suggest? Presumably works from Rodin could be percieved as sexual exploitation? It's my belief that models are not forced to do the job they do, could there be an element of jealousy An? 'Disgusted of Tonbridge' are usually the ones who command the attention (often in a one sided 'debate') and are physically unattractive. Just a thought...
3-09-2010 @ 11:13AM
Richard said...
Johnboy, - dicktionary?? - I really do hope you are being ironic, not just thick!!
Reply
3-10-2010 @ 5:26AM
johnboy said...
Richard, If you have to ask, then the irony is lost on you. Is`nt "Dick" a diminutive for Richard? And please dont call me thick, I`m just "big boned".
3-09-2010 @ 11:38AM
joseph said...
what about the suggestive perfime ads that we have to suffer every christmas/easter/mothers day etc?
i.e. kate moss having an orgasm in the back of a car!
Reply
3-09-2010 @ 12:46PM
Flakelovinguy said...
Personally, I love to get my tong round a flake, it melts in my mouth giving me great pleasure...can't think why people relate a beautiful girl enjoying chocolate confectionary with an overwhelming passion, too Lucifer? I suppose one could argue, if you eat to many, its a devilish way to put on weight...
Hey Cadbury's don’t waste a million next time, contact me...I am open to negotiation...
I hear some folk melt flakes onto cakes, yummy.
Reply