Published 12:24 IST, August 30th 2019
Cadbury 'Unity Bar' promoting diversity in India sparks global debate
Cadbury released a 'Unity Bar' in India featuring four different types of chocolate namely dark, blended, milk and white which has triggered a herculean debate
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The globally acclaimed confectionery, Cadbury released a 'Unity Bar' in India featuring four different types of chocolate namely dark, blended, milk and white. While the multi-flavored bar rolled out on August 15 teaming up with advertising agency, Ogilvy in order to celebrate the country's Independence Day, in a rather unfortunate situation, many fans and audiences missed the mark, thus prompting a herculean argument on the internet.
While unveiling the Unity Bar, the advertising agency had stated that India is a diverse country with people of different castes, creed, languages, religions, and region, and in order to celebrate it, the company had come forward with the idea of putting them together with 'love'.
Title: Unity Bar
— Ogilvy (@Ogilvy) August 20, 2019
Client: Cadbury
Team: @Ogilvy_India
To celebrate India's diverse population, Cadbury and our team in Mumbai created a chocolate made of dark, blended, milk and white chocolate - all united in one bar.
Check out more #ClientWork, here: https://t.co/B8ZgTqfyAh pic.twitter.com/DBE2SpAnb8
Cadbury's 'Unity Bar' triggers debate:
Triggering a massive debate on social media, many netizens flagged the British confectionery stating that the advertisement was racist in nature. However, a few others supported their brainchild. A user from the UK tweeted saying, "boycott the unity bar", another user chimed in saying, "I don't understand what the fuss is about, this is lovely".
For the Unity Bar:
People are going off on this and not even reading it the article and what it’s addressing https://t.co/U1o5ubrfyV
— ella (@EllaDecember) August 29, 2019
🧨 Read the article please 🧨 this Cadbury chocolate campaign is based in India and is about addressing colourism and the caste system - not some western kumbaya message of diversity https://t.co/gkZ5e40kJN
— Rubicon Guava 🏳️🌈 (@jasebyjason) August 29, 2019
I see nothing wrong in this idea.
— Yorkshire (@british8801) August 29, 2019
👍
Against the Unity Bar:
*wipes hands off* and that's the end of racism https://t.co/FyeHRktuGH
— David Mack (@davidmackau) August 29, 2019
congratulations to cadbury for solving racism https://t.co/ndPsolKTKI
— Tejal Rao (@tejalrao) August 29, 2019
Say hello to new age of "Creative Racism"....
— RohitBora🇮🇳 (@Rohitbora7) August 30, 2019
For the uninitiated, the advertisement was lauded widely for its inclusivity, despite Hindi being the most common language, the front page ad used different languages, for different areas which read, "Sweet things happen when we unite"
Whoa!! Well done, Cadbury's (and Ogilvy), using a Kannada headline in the Mumbai edition, Telugu headline in the Delhi edition and a Marathi headline in the Bengaluru edition. Point made beautifully! Lovely idea that turns our usual Hindi-centric advertising on its head :) pic.twitter.com/XXXCdlcskG
— Karthik (@beastoftraal) August 15, 2019
11:59 IST, August 30th 2019