Cadburys Trucks

So the new Cadburys truck ad (the follow up to the Gorilla) is out ! So now we know why the new terminal at Heathrow is having problems losing baggage – its all spread out over the runway due to racing baggage trucks.

But what does this have to do with chocolate and how do you emotionally engage with a bunch of inanimate baggage trucks ? Sure the production values are high and look stunning, but instead of a bar of chocolate at the end you could put up a dishwasher / toilet roll / inkjet printer. Wheres the connection ?

From Marketing Week :

“Cadbury says that the new ad is designed to “put a smile on viewers faces”…

It leaves me going “Huh ? ” And I really don’t care about the “little van” , does it even win – I can’t really tell.

One of the main issues when they developed the movie cars was how do you make inanimate objects have some kind of appeal and emotional reactions to the viewers. Considered probably the least successful of the Pixar movies (cars movie) they realised early on that they needed to “humanise” the cars and personally I think they did a pretty good job , but I think this fact is really lacking in the Cadburys spot.

Their timing with Heathrow Terminal 5′s problems however is impeccable – maybe more than a co-incidence and a pseudo – guerilla marketing campaign ? Maybe Cadburys should be offering chocolate in compensation to all those travellers (maybe they already are !)