Cadbury chocolate video takes the cake

It’s that time of year when the media loves nothing better than to warn everybody about the dangers of sugar: it’s poisoning us, it’s toxic, it’s the root cause of an obesity epidemic, etc.

However, there is a counter-message in our faces much of the time. According to the end-of-year Posterwatch report by out-of-home advertising specialists PML Group, the company that spent the most promoting its wares through the medium in 2014 was not five-years-in-row leader Diageo, but Cadbury-owner Mondelez.

Mondelez ran out-of-home campaigns for its other products, but mainly there was just so much chocolate to tell everyone about.

As the name suggests, the "Rate the 8" campaign showcased no fewer than eight Cadbury bars via a poll gimmick to find "the nation's favourite". The Star Bar was given the slogan "No Nuts No Glory". And for Easter favourite the Creme Egg, Cadbury opted for the hedonists' charter "Here for a Good Time, Not a Long Time".

All in all, Mondelez’s campaigns had a display value that was 22 per cent higher than the previous year, which helped lift out-of-home spending by the confectionery category as a whole by 15 per cent.

Cadbury was founded in the 19th century in Birmingham, near where it opened the Bournville "factory in a garden". It has had an Irish manufacturing presence since the 1930s, which presumably contributes to Irish people's, ahem, emotional connection to that particular shade of purple.

According to the last Checkout/Nielsen Top 100 biggest selling brands list, Cadbury chocolate is the brand with the fourth highest sales by value in Ireland, outsold only by Coca-Cola, Avonmore and Brennans.

A recent survey for Checkout found that Cadbury chocolate was second only to Tayto crisps as the brand Irish emigrants miss most when overseas. Cadbury chocolate was missed by 56 per cent of the 500 respondents, with 35 per cent saying they missed it "a lot".

For these deprived souls, Cantillon prescribes a watch of the Cadbury #FreeTheJoy video, which shows football pundits Johnny Giles and Eamon Dunphy attempting to dance to Yes, Sir, I Can Boogie.

When it comes to putting people off chocolate for life, this ad is just as good, if not better, than fear of Type 2 diabetes.