After the war Cadbury continued in their promotional work. Cadbury gave out hundreds of samples as well as organising cookery demonstrations and opening Chocolate Houses, which were like coffee bars but centred around chocolate. But something revolutionary was about to happen: television advertising.
Commercial television began broadcasting on September 22nd 1955, and Cadbury Drinking Chocolate was one of the very first adverts to appear. TV advertising was tough to start with though – many products were produced at comparatively small volumes and weren’t really suited for the new medium. So Cadbury concentrated on a more generic message, showing a cut-down version of a 1951 film, ‘The Bournville Story’, when commercial TV arrived in the Midlands.
August 31st 1957 saw the premier of thirteen one-minute films: travelogues describing the harvesting of ingredients used at Cadbury. The same night Adrian Cadbury, grandson of George, was interviewed about the films during the interval of ‘Sunday Night at the London Palladium’.
In the 1960s more product-specific ads appeared: for Flake, Skippy and Aztec amongst others. Obviously at this time TV was in black and white, but this was all about to change…