To celebrate India's Independence Day on August 15, Cadbury U.K. and global advertising agency Ogilvy united to craft a stunning, limited-edited chocolate bar with four different types of chocolate.
The Unity Bar, as they titled it, includes white, milk, blended and dark chocolates and it wasn't just supposed to be sweet, it's supposed to send a strong message about racism and class divisions in modern society.
The bar, which has been met with both praise and confusion, was advertised on Cadbury's social media channels and in one of the country's major newspapers, The Economic Times.
The ad was printed in three Indian languages (Kannada, Telugu and Marathi), and they were distributed in different cities throughout the country. In India, Kannada and Telugu are rarely used in mainstream media content, so the ad was immediately celebrated for showcasing more diversity. The main message was written in English.
“We are all different. You, me, we, us, humanity — a rainbow of brown, a giant bouquet of mother tongues, a churning confluence of cultures. It is these very differences that make us the same. All of us equal. All of us beautiful. All of us, together under one sky," the ad reads. "Sweet things happen when we unite.”
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According to Cadbury, the Unity Bar represents an inclusive India that is not divided by the caste system, a longstanding social and religious hierarchy that segregated people based on race and class. Developed approximately 3,000 years ago on the basis of Hindi beliefs, the system separated communities of people into five castes or classes according to karma (work) and dharma (religion or duty), according to the BBC. It has traditionally been very difficult, if not virtually impossible, to change one's caste.
After India became independent from the U.K. in 1947, its new constitution banned discrimination based on caste and created new opportunities, including jobs in government and education, for the groups that were, for millennia, considered as the lowest castes.
It's this advancement for inclusion that Cadbury set out to promote with its multi-hued dessert.
"This Independence Day, let's celebrate a country that stands united in its diversity. Presenting the Cadbury Unity Bar, India's first chocolate with dark, blended, milk and white chocolate all under one wrap," the Cadbury team wrote on Twitter.
A lot of tweeters commended Cadbury for the delicious-looking idea.
But some commented that the campaign might miss some of its targeted audience, especially those reading about the chocolate bar in cities like Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru, where those languages aren't spoken.
And several were a bit skeptical by the idea of using chocolate to promote equality.
The inclusive and flavor-friendly chocolate bar has since received attention beyond India. Some Americans hoped to get Cadbury in the U.S., where it's owned by Hershey not Mondelez, to launch the Unity Bar here.
Since the bar was a limited release, however, it sold out quickly, leaving many Cadbury fans (especially those with indecisive chocolate tastes) upset.
Representatives for Mondelez, Cadbury U.K. and Hershey were not able to provide information as to whether people in the U.S. (or any other markets) would be able to get a taste of this all-inclusive chocolate bar in the future.
