Sex sells… even on facebook…

Everyone knows that sex sells… don’t they?  But it isn’t right for every product or service.. and what happens when the attraction fades?

Cadbury’s have got away with it since the 60s with iconic ads stirring a potent mix of sexy women and phallic chocolate.  The 1920s bar started treading the path of forbidden temptation with alluring actresses via this fairly tame 60s version, becoming progressively more daring with their drifting canoe and the babe in the bath .

I’m sure they were rubbing their hands in glee when comedian Jasper Carrott created his spoof of the bath advert with his television audiences of 13.5 million viewers.  I guess this was an early form of viral marketing and adding humour to the heavenly pot certainly wouldn’t have hurt their sales.

Like everything there will be those who love it and those who hate it… sadly Kent warbler, Joss Stone did not do a great deal for sales other than several facebook groups dedicated to hating her… it was a little early for massive numbers on facebook fanpages… and has only prompted around 100 members in various hate groups… but it was still a very early indication of the direction of advertising… whereas the more recent and mildly amusing chocolate Lynx man has nigh on 5,500 likes… the chocolate man advert was more amusing than anything else… sadly…

The last Cadbury flake offering seemed to pander to an artistic director with ghostly visuals and instantly forgettable music, completely lacking the atmospheric seduction of earlier versions.  Also gone is the instantly recognisable (and very annoyingly memorable music you will now hum all afternoon if you have watched the clips..) No longer likely to feed a potential pastiche in fact not very tempting at all… and actually surprisingly similar to one done by Kate Moss for Alexander… but as the design was created for Cadbury’s by Baillie Walsh who also worked with Alexander McQueen and London Supermodel Kate Moss it was not really a surprise… nor were the lawyer’s letters it prompted… No wonder they were leveraging off Kate Moss with her plethora of fanpages and even though her largest one (with over 325,00 likes) was updated only once on 22nd April 2009… and is now an unmanaged mass of blatant ads, nasty language and adverts leveraging off the association and list… it easily buries the Cadbury’s flake pages with a mere handful of followers on a few stale pages…

Cadbury’s could well have lost their way… they have even ditched the strap-line… 50 years of loyal service and “only the crumbliest, flakiest chocolate… tastes like chocolate never tasted before…” has been penshioned off… in fact the brand is completely unrecognisable… almost to the point of looking for another pleasurable temptor… although I did spot this piccie on the internet whilst doing some research… which shows a very positive tie up for a very worthwhile cause… so maybe their sexy image was all worthwhile…

So, is their new sugar daddy trying to dumb down the irresistible image deliberately and if so what does the future hold for a former sexpot in a competitive world? It will be interesting to see the effect it has on the sales and if the new owners revert to their winning formula or bury the brand completely.

Whatever the outcome sex will be used to sell products (not just services) and facebook will be seeing bigger numbers and greater interaction from fans… but not sure a former sex icon will be featuring very much….

This is a reworking of an earlier piece on cadburys.

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