At the risk of jumping on the “I love the Cadbury drumming gorilla” bandwagon (you know how much we love Gorillas here!) I have a few things about the wicked Cadbury ad campaigns that I would love to get off my, hairless, chest!
This has all been brought on by the recent release of the full-length, Ghana-inspired song ‘Zingolo’ featuring Ghana’s premiere rap outfit Tinny. This tune is another mad cap, quirky and down-right brilliant offering from a Glass and a Half Full Productions and further evidence of why the Cadbury ads have been, and should be, getting so much attention. The song is a celebration of the company’s move to FairTrade. After 101 years of using Ghanaian grown cocoa beans Cadbury wanted to celebrate this new move with all the buzz, noise, dancing and bright colours of Ghana.
The title of the song ‘Zingolo’ means ‘enjoy it’ and it was this translation that kind of provoked me to start typing. My initial thought was “perfect, very clever, the title fits and builds on the whole ethos of the Glass and a Half Full of Joy thing. Good job!” However, this opened a whole can of worms. Take two pairs of dancing eye brows, a team of racing airport ground-crew vehicles (my personal favourite), add one drumming gorilla and some retro tunes and what do you get? What does it all actually mean? Hmm …
By writing this I am probably going against the whole creative idea behind Glass and a Half Full productions, which was founded upon the concept that all communications should be as effortlessly enjoyable as eating the Dairy Milk bar itself. I have considered and discussed these productions over a fair few coffees, so from my point of view these incredible ads are far from effortless. I have spent way too much of my spare time thinking! That by no means is a negative thing … after all the whole point of advertising is to provoke interest and ensure a product is memorable (and of course produce sales).
I came to the conclusion that these really quirky films are firstly meant to impart joy and fill us with fun, happy thoughts. Secondly, because Dairy Milk is made with a glass and a half full of milk, which apparently gives it its amazing taste, I wondered if we are meant to apply this chocolate recipe to our lives. If we approach everything we do with a glass and a half full (not just one glass) mentality we might have that much more fun. I have to admit racing down a deserted airstrip does look pretty cool. Also, perhaps Cadbury wants to make the joy we get from the adverts, synonymous with the joy we could get from eating Dairy Milk.
My theories are just ponderings … I am sure you probably are not really meant to sit and analyse. However, in answer to my earlier question, “Take two pairs of dancing eye brows, a team of racing airport ground-crew vehicles, add one drumming gorilla and some retro tunes and what do you get? A flipping awesome ad campaign that’s what. I can’t wait for my next glass and a full of joy!