Cadbury’s tagline is ‘There’s a glass & a half in everyone’, because there’s not just one glass of milk in their bars; but a generous glass and a half.

The brief was to bring this to life by showing Cadbury being generous, and the public also.

Cadbury has a history of generosity, being set up in the 19th century by John Cadbury to improve society, rather than chase profit.

The Cadbury of today wanted to continue John’s legacy by shining a light on the loneliness crisis in older people. 225,000 older people often go a whole week without speaking to anyone.

Cadbury wanted to help reduce this shocking figure, by conducting a nationwide campaign to get the public to take time and chat with their older neighbours. To do this, Cadbury needed to both inspire and persuade the public to take part.

Cadbury removed the words from the front of Dairy Milk bars to draw attention to the 225,000 lonely older people who often go a week without speaking to anyone.

The reverse asked the public to donate their words to lonely older people too. 30p/bar also went to the charity Age UK.

There was also a web address to a hub, run jointly with the charity Age UK, where the public could find out in more depth how to donate your words.

Cadbury created a host of activities to support the initiative, including a TV ad ‘Fence’ exploring old age loneliness and intergenerational generosity; a print campaign; an online documentary film about the effects of loneliness; social activity that encouraged people to post their support; and a takeover of Age UK’s 450 High Street shops where customers paid in pledges to donate their words, rather than money.

Loneliness in older people is a nationwide problem, so the target audience was the whole country. We all need to do something about it, even if it is just calling your grandmother a bit more.

Cadbury wanted to do something that wasn’t just a message about doing good for the community, but also meant that it came from the product too. That the product had sacrificed something too, and not just money. Which was why, the initiative had to be based around the one public-facing asset they owned - the chocolate bar itself.

Dairy Milk is universally popular across all age groups, and is the most popular chocolate in the country. So it made the bars an ideal medium to carry a message to the country as a whole.

The wordless bar was launched in September 2019. Cadbury made 1.1 million, with 30p/bar going to the charity Age UK. The bar encouraged the public to donate their words to lonely older people too.

To support the launch of the wordless bar, Cadbury created a host of activities. A national TV ad ‘Fence’ explored old age loneliness and intergenerational generosity accompanied by a print campaign and online documentary films about the effects of loneliness. Social activity encouraged posts of support from the public.

In October ‘Donate your words’ took over Age UK’s 450 High Street shops where customers paid in pledges to donate their words, rather than with money.

Then in January, Cadbury created a series of films about older people who had benefited from the campaign. Thanking all those who donated their words so far and encouraging more to join in.

CONFIDENTIAL TO JURY: Sales of Cadbury Dairy Milk increased 9% between December 2018 and December 2019, 3x the average category growth of 3% - equal to £48M - raising Cadbury’s market share from 13.8% to 14.6%.

Steph Harland, CEO of Age UK (the UK’s biggest charity for older people) described the campaign as ‘starting a national conversation about the issue of loneliness and has inspired people to take action’.

Over 200,000 people visited either Age UK’s website or the hub to find out how to donate your words and over 600,000 posted their support for the campaign on social media.

Research shows that over 1M people have donated their words to lonely older people since the campaign began.

The bar is featuring in The Museum of Brands exhibition, ‘Brands That Made A Stand’ that explores some of the ‘most debated advertising and design campaigns in history’.