Candy ads leave archaeologists sour
Anyone with a sweet tooth might do any number of things for a taste of chocolate. Looting protected archaeological sites probably should not be one of them.
That apparently was not so obvious to British candy maker Cadbury.
The company recently marketed its Freddo Treasures chocolates with an advertising campaign that urged consumers to “grab your metal detector and go hunting for Roman riches” and other artifacts at specific sites around Britain and Ireland.
A website for the campaign suggested that adventurers “dig up Viking silver on the River Ribble,” “hunt for precious rings in Fermanagh” and “mine for Saxon gold in Chelmsford, Essex.”
“Are you willing to get your hands dirty to discover more?” the website asked, effectively comparing the act of opening a box of chocolates to searching for ancient relics. At certain sites, the ad campaign said, “the treasure’s fair game.”
Archaeologists and museum curators were quick to object.
Ian Trumble, a curator of archaeology, Egyptology and world cultures at Bolton Museum in northern England, wrote on Twitter over the weekend that the marketing effort was “quite possibly the most shocking, ill-advised & irresponsible ‘heritage engagement’ campaigns” he had ever seen.
Cadbury’s pitch, he added, “actively promotes the gleeful destruction of archaeological sites and undermines years of public heritage education.”
In an interview Monday, he expanded on his objections, saying that anyone engaging in a real-life game of “Tomb Raider” in many parts of the British Isles would be doing something “unquestionably illegal.”
On Twitter, the Historic England government body echoed his stance, citing “strict rules that protect England’s archaeological heritage.”
The misstep suggests Cadbury’s marketing department has not learned from other companies’ botched attempts at being clever.
• “The Daily Show” mocked Delta Air Lines this year after passengers complained they had been given napkins that encouraged them to flirt with other travelers. On one side, the napkins, produced in a partnership with Diet Coke, said: “Be a little old school, write down your number and give it to your plane crush. You never know.” On the other, they said: “Because you’re on a plane full of interesting people and hey ... you never know.”
• Department store shoppers in Britain did not appreciate a display ad for Benefit Cosmetics’ Boi-ing product, which encouraged them to “skip class, not concealer.” The company apologized on Twitter, saying that it valued “all levels of education.”
• An ad in the Bloomingdale’s 2015 holiday catalog showed a man looking at a woman who was gazing away from him. The message: “Spike your best friend’s eggnog when they’re not looking.” Inundated with claims that the ad promoted date rape, the retailer apologized and said the ad was “inappropriate and in poor taste.”
Mondelez International, which owns Cadbury, said in a statement that it had not meant “to encourage anyone to break existing regulations regarding the discovery of new archaeological artifacts.”
The company said it had taken down the website and was working on “directing families to museums where existing treasures can be found.”
The Advertising Standards Authority received 30 complaints about the ad, according to Matt Wilson, a spokesman for the British regulatory body.
Cadbury seems to have an affinity for treasure hunts.
In the 1980s, the company placed 12 golden eggs around Britain and then hid clues about where they could be found in a book, according to the BBC. One of the eggs sold for more than $8,000 at auction in December.