The Comic Recipe for Bournville’s Chocolate Snob Sparring Match

Cadbury’s first major brand campaign for its Bournville brand in nearly 50 years marks the chocolate bar out as ‘Made to be enjoyed, not endured’. And it’s got some serious comedy chops, not least thanks to the involvement of comedy writer Simon Blackwell (‘Peep Show’, ‘Veep’, ‘The Thick of It’).

Created by global creative agency of record VCCP, the campaign revolves around the idea that, despite being dark chocolate, Bournville is approachable and easy to enjoy. The comedy spot at the centre of the campaign depicts two snobbish dark chocolate aficionados competing to prove they’re the bigger enthusiast. While they argue over complex tasting notes of their artisanal bars, a Bournville fan quietly enjoys a chunk of smooth, simple dark chocolate – entirely unimpressed.

LBB’s Olivia Atkins and Alex Reeves spoke to creative director Simon Connor to get the recipe for this enjoyable portion of dialogue.

LBB> What was the original brief from Bournville, and how did you interpret it creatively?

Simon> Bournville (the chocolate, not the town) was created in 1908.
A simple, straightforward, no-nonsense, easy-to-enjoy dark chocolate.
And since then, the dark chocolate category has gotten a little bit well...

Dark chocolate has developed a perception of being a chore to eat and exclusively enjoyed by ‘aficionados’, droning on about provenance and cocoa percentages.

The brief was, position Bournville as the antidote to this… Nothing fancy or schmancy, a dark chocolate made to be enjoyed, not endured.

LBB> Why did you feel humour was the right tone for this campaign?

Simon> At the centre of the ad is this one-upmanship between the two aficionados.
And, we didn’t want it to be mean-spirited, so humour is massively important.

We were also led by the audience. They are at a stage in life where they know what they like, they’ve made up their minds about what (and who) they like and don’t like.

We also looked at the style of humour, we wanted it to feel like a script from their heyday – late ‘80s, early ‘90s stuff like ‘The Young Ones’, ‘Blackadder’, Harry Enfield and ‘The Fast Show’.

LBB> The script is razor-sharp – how did you go about developing it to make sure every beat landed?

Simon> That’s very kind. The idea for the script came early.
I think it may even have been in the first review with Alice and Lara.

The idea of one-upmanship between the two characters was so incredibly simple, it then just came down to what are the best gags, how do we build them up.
We showed the clients, and they loved it. When we showed it to the audience, it resonated immediately.

Once we had that foundation, we just kept writing and writing. We wanted it to feel like a funny film that was an advert, rather than a funny advert.
So we went looking for someone who could help us make the jokes really universally funny, and that’s when we joined up with Simon Blackwell. He is obviously an incredible writer, having worked on some of our favourite shows - ‘Peep Show,’ ‘The Thick of It’ and ‘Veep’.

He was so generous with his time and advice, and we had some great sessions with him fleshing it out into a sketch-length piece, which had people crying in the office when I read it out in meetings.

LBB> How collaboratively did you work with the client to refine the script from concept to final draft?

Simon> The clients were a dream. I think that because it was an idea that sat so rooted in the category, that resonated so clearly and so well with the audience, it gave us all a resolute confidence that it was the right thing to do. From there, they gave us (the team, the director) a tremendous amount of creative expression to do what we thought would be best. We were writing things even after the PPM and on set. Director, creatives and clients all huddled around the same monitor – no video village, just all together, spitballing jokes and seeing what made us laugh, right there in the moment.

LBB> Which director did you choose for the project, and what made them the perfect fit?

Simon> Harold Einstein directed the film. It has been a career mission to work with him, and it could not have been better.
He came in and breathed new life into the idea at the perfect time. He was very effusive about the script, and we absolutely loved working together.
His attention to detail was second to none, meticulously crafting the lines down to length; if a joke was too long, it didn’t make it.
He taught us the rhythm of the comedy and how the jokes needed to be in couplets so they flowed from one to the other.

LBB> How do you think this campaign positions Bournville in the current chocolate market?

Simon> We hope that this position Bournville as the no-nonsense, easy to enjoy alternative to the complex and hard-to-get-into world of dark chocolate.

A dark chocolate made to be enjoyed, not endured. After all, it is chocolate.