Youtube VideoCadbury’s been fairly busy lately. It recently launched a new global campaign out of Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney called Joyville and it has followed up the Youtube Video” class=”oembed” >Youtube Video“>first spot (hmmm, where have we seen the ‘lots of funny looking people making chocolate in a secretive factory’ thing before?) with a TVC currently running in Australia announcing the arrival of its new Youtube Video” class=”oembed” >Youtube Video“>Marvellous Creations bar. But, closer to home, as part of its sponsorship of the New Zealand Olympic Team, it has also launched an ad showing its support for the athletes—and the supporters of those athletes.
It’s a nice ad, it’s very well-made by hot-to-trot Thick as Thieves director Jae Morrison, and it’s undoubtedly the best canine performance in an ad since Lotto’s Wilson. But this feel-good sponsorship malarkey did remind us of Charlie Brooker’s recent piece sarcastically thanking the sponsors for the excitement they bring to the Olympics.
The Olympic games trundle ever closer, and already you can smell the excitement in the air, because it’s being wafted in by gigantic corporate excitement blowers … “Oral-B is getting behind the London 2012 Olympics,” cheers the Boots website. “Share the excitement with their Professional Care 500 floss action electric toothbrush.” Yes: the exhilaration, the agony, the sheer elation experienced by athletes operating at the peak of their physical aptitude – all this can be yours in the form of a vibrating twig you stick in your mouth … Oral-B’s official Olympic toothbrush exists because its parent company, Procter & Gamble, has a sponsorship deal enabling it to associate all its products with the Games. That’s why if you look up Viakal limescale remover on a supermarket website, the famous five interlocking rings pop up alongside it. This in no way cheapens the Olympic emblem, which traditionally symbolises global unity, peaceful competition and gleaming stainless steel shower baskets. When you’re done sprucing up your teeth and your bathroom, you could further embrace the Olympic spirit by slurping a Coca-Cola (official Olympic drink) followed by a Twirl from Cadbury’s (official Olympic snack provider). Or really go the whole hog and polish off a couple of Sausage-and-Egg McMuffins at your local McDonald’s (official Olympic restaurant), after which you should be ready to represent Britain in the 400-litre diarrhoea.
Two years ago, Cadbury’s very clever Billboards to Bags campaign sent our Commonwealth Games athletes off to India with, as the name suggests, a bag made from billboard skins that were dotted around the country and had been signed by locals with messages of support.
Chocolate fans rejoice, for here are Cadbury’s new Joyville ads, as well as a clip of a chocolate fountain that was created in a Westfield mall in the UK.
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