Adwatch: Cadbury Dairy Milk - 'Gorilla'

is something to talk about other than the weather - such as an
interesting ad.

Here they have a very interesting one, courtesy of Cadbury. No hard
sell, no chest-beating - in spite of the presence of the gorilla.
Nothing but pure joy. And I'm not just lazily referring to the
endline.

Such entertainment could result in even a weedkiller being taken closer
to the nation's heart. So what could it do for a product that tastes
nice and already has a place there? Cadbury Dairy Milk has, after all,
provided us with solace and cheer through two world wars, a miner's
strike and more than our fair share of penalty shoot-outs. It has given
us an almost Pavlovian response to the colour purple, and the
glass-and-a-half claim is as familiar and reassuring to the older ones
among us as the fact that Skegness is bracing.

All that could sound a bit tired and backward-looking, so Cadbury,
justifiably as market leader, has chosen to explore the generic benefit
of chocolate as a source of happiness per se. Over the past few years,
the results of this have been slightly weird, strangely anarchic even,
but ultimately they've missed. Whereas along comes the gorilla and a
subtle shift from happiness to joy, and, as I've personally witnessed,
it's a hit in the pub and on the bus and half a million hits on the
internet.

Magic, yes, but not a formula. Cadbury Dairy Milk now has a chance of
standing for moments of joy over and above any of your poncey foreign
chocolate, through eschewing formulae. A rather brilliant client has
found itself a new agency in Fallon, treated it like a fantastic new set
of drums and, most brilliantly of all, allowed itself to play.