Sex Sells: A Brief History of Advertising Chocolate

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Sex has been a big part of advertising chocolate

If there’s anything we’ve learned from years of Mad Men, saucy perfume ads, and the notorious Flake ads, it’s that sex sells. A brief history of advertising chocolate. Isn’t it sexy?

And the Cadbury flake ads are a prime example of the advertising mantra “sex sells”. If the subject of saucy adverts arises at the dinner table, the flake ads will usually be the first to come up. This campaign spanned the 1980s and 90s, with each advertisement having one common denominator: a very attractive woman who suggestively locks eyes with viewers as she takes a bite out of a Flake bar.

 

“The crumbliest, flakiest, milk chocolate in the world” (Flake advert, 1992)

This year, Cadbury launched a very suggestive advert for crème eggs, oozing with innuendo on licking, sucking, and lip-smacking. The sexual metaphors were just overt enough to appear self-aware. Here it was tongue-in-cheek, Cadbury knew they were playing on a long-standing history of using sex to sell chocolate.

But why is sex such an effective way to sell chocolate? Can we really believe that chocolate really will have women swooning and men drooling over us?

It’s important to note that the connection between sex and chocolate was made long before the advertisements we know and love today existed. Ever since chocolate was first consumed – by Aztec heavyweights like Montezuma – it has been attributed with libido-lifting, virility-boosting properties. In short, it’s always been considered an aphrodisiac.

And before Cadbury’s crème egg “golden goobilee” campaign, countless chocolate advertisements graced our screen. Some were more subtle, but many were equally suggestive. Remember the 1992 Galaxy ad? A woman sinks into her sofa, parting her painted red lips, sensuously eating a square of chocolate whilst closing her eyes in a moment of satisfaction that borders on euphoric.

Sex sells: Women’s sexually charged relationship with chocolate

And it often is women we see being susceptible to the allegedly aphrodisiacal qualities of confectionary in chocolate advertising. Conversely, the thought of a man in a silk robe on the “hunt” for a cocoa hit seems almost ludicrous. There are far fewer intimate close-ups, parted lips, and satisfied sighs from men than there are from women.

This seems especially interesting. Historically, it was powerful men who indulged in chocolate as a means to increase virility. Traditionally, women were not thought to be so susceptible to the influence of aphrodisiacs. That these advertisements present women as the primary consumer – and lover – of chocolate signifies a recent cultural shift in our understanding of chocolate in relation to gender.

The truth about chocolate and sex

Much as we would love to tell you otherwise, it’s sadly untrue that chocolate functions as an aphrodisiac. It won’t have you ripping each other’s clothes off like that hot couple you saw in the ads. If you’re wanting to be like the women you see on Ferrero Rocher, Galaxy, or Flake adverts, then order some of our favourite bars, close your eyes and indulge.