The new spot is a shot-for-shot remake of a 2018 ad—with some changes.
A 200th birthday is a special occasion for any brand, and Cadbury is making the most of it in the U.K.—where John Cadbury started the business in 1824—with a mix of cinematic and user-generated content.
The Mondelēz-owned confectionery company kicks off the anniversary celebrations with a 60-second spot, launching Monday, that tells the story of another birthday—that of a mother, whose daughter wants to get her a gift.
The action begins in 19th-century England, where the mother is finishing her shift at a factory. Successive scenes jump forward decades, as seen in the mother’s changing fashions.
At one point, seemingly in the early 20th century, mother and daughter pass a corner store on their way home. As the mother stops to make a call at a telephone booth, the daughter enters the shop—with the desire, if not the money, to buy a chocolate bar.
Decades pass, subtly, even during the scenes inside the store—a change mostly visible in the shopkeeper’s attire. By the end of the spot, we’re in the present day, as the daughter presents her mother outside with the Cadbury bar.
The spot, from VCCP London, is a shot-for-shot remake of a 2018 ad by the same agency. The earlier spot was completely set in the present day—in fact, the final scenes of the new ad are taken directly from the old one. All the earlier scenes, though, were reshot.
The same two adult actors returned for the remake, but the girl couldn’t play the same role—she had aged too much in the meantime. So, VCCP used some digital trickery to keep her in the film.
The young actress was added to newly shot scenes in post-production.
“The biggest challenge was definitely a technical one,” Angus Vine, creative director, told Ad Age. “Our lead girl was now much older. However, we wanted this to be a perfect recreation of the original ad and to mirror the original cast exactly. This was a huge challenge and meant that the post team had to painstakingly tackle each shot individually to place our original girl into the new ad.”
The other big challenge, Vine said, was making the transitions through the years flow naturally.
“Even though we’re moving through 200 years, we crafted the styling, art direction and costume design so that the shifting decades felt seamless and subtle,” he said. “All so it didn't overpower the lovely story of generosity that sits at the heart of this commercial.”
VCCP’s global content creation studio, Girl&Bear, worked on the spot with director Frederic Planchon of Academy Films (who also directed the original spot) and post-production company Selected Works.
Along with the film, the campaign includes out-of-home and social ads that are much less obsessively crafted—featuring candid photos sent in by Cadbury fans nationwide.
Fan photos anchor an out-of-home and social part of the campaign.
“It’s not every day that you have the opportunity to celebrate a 200th anniversary,” said Elise Burditt, senior marketing director at Cadbury. “But for us, this is so much more than that—it’s celebrating 200 years of being part of the lives of the British public and recognizing that we wouldn’t be here today without them.”
Other nostalgic campaign elements include a limited-edition range of seven Cadbury Dairy Milk bars that are being released featuring classic designs—crafted in collaboration with Bulletproof, Cadbury’s branding agency. A series of retro posters will also harken back to the artwork of bygone campaigns.
Media planning and execution for the campaign was handled by Publicis Media.
