Campaign Showcase
Cadbury and VCCP On Putting a Glass and a Half Into Fighting Alzheimer's
The brand and agency discuss developing the latest campaign in support of Alzheimer's Research UK
21 January 2025
‘There’s a glass and a half in everyone’ is Cadbury’s global brand platform that positively underlines its commitment to helping consumers convey gestures of kindness through gifting its products.
The platform emanated from the ‘glass and a half’ statement featured on Cadbury’s Dairy Milk wrappers for over 80 years.
Beginning with ‘Mum’s Birthday’ in 2017, the much-lauded campaign has won numerous industry awards for creativity and effectiveness from organisation such as D&AD, The British Arrows and the IPA. It quickly became so popular that by 2021 the annual sales value for the company increased by 22 per cent, according to an IPA case study.
The same report also claimed that the number of people who said they’d heard something positive from the brand – or about the brand – had tripled from 3 per cent in the two years before the launch, to 10 per cent afterward.
Created by its global agency of record VCCP, the 'glass and a half' statement has run beyond the initial much-loved ad, with follow-up spots that also featured heartfelt and emotional storytelling such as ‘Bus’, ‘Fence’, and more recently in ‘Garage’, with each focusing on the power of gifting a bar of chocolate.
“The 'glass and a half in everyone' campaign is a big brand idea that serves as a platform for powerful stories,” explains Jonathan McCarthy, head of global brand, Cadbury & Toblerone.
Indeed, so confident is the brand in the platform that it evolved, to a degree, last year with the rallying cry 'Become a supporter and a half' as part of its Club Together football community initiative.
"What’s stayed consistent over the years is the kind of stories we have told and the way we have told them – it's always a small act with a big emotion."
Nikhil Nicholas, global equity lead on Cadbury at Mondelez International
And now that is being taken even further with the seventh annual installment of the campaign, ‘Memory’ which sees Cadbury also aim to support the fight against Alzheimer’s disease.
“As a brand we’ve shone a spotlight on these everyday stories of generosity and the generous instinct within each and everyone of us that otherwise would have remain hidden, unnoticed, and unrecognised,” explains Nikhil Nicholas, global equity lead on Cadbury at Mondelez International.
“What’s stayed consistent over the years is the kind of stories we have told and the way we have told them – it's always a small act with a big emotion, the setting is of the everyday i.e., it is not grand, for show or contrived and there is a sense of quiet in the midst of the chaos. What’s changed over the years is really the stories themselves and the various relationships that have been explored. Every installment in the journey has been a bit of the same but different, thereby being consistent with the message, but being fresh with the expression of that message,” he continues.
Resurfacing memories
According to Alzheimer’s Research UK, almost 1 million people in the UK live with dementia as it searches for a cure for the disease. With Cadbury’s support, it continues to do so.
The latest 60-second spot tells the story of a daughter bringing her Alzheimer’s suffering father a bar of Cadbury Wholenut as part of a long-standing ritual. But he admits to her that he actually hates nuts but asks her not to tell his daughter who he no longer recognises, as it makes her happy. She smiles at being unwittingly allowed in on his secret and his generosity in keeping it for so long.
The final shot features both the brand platform and the logo for Alzheimer’s Research UK. The spot follows Cadbury’s 200th anniversary campaign from last year, which allowed consumers to share user-generated content of their memories featuring the brand.
“Over the years we have received requests from families and care homes for old Cadbury wrappers, with the packaging being used to spark memories and start conversations with those living with dementia,” reveals Simon Connor, VCCP's creative director and the script writer for ‘Memory’.
In recognition of the request, several nostalgic Cadbury Dairy Milk designs were also released featuring the charity’s logo and information. They have been distributed publicly as well as to support and care homes while the brand will also donate £200,000 to Alzheimer’s Research UK.
“When we first got the brief, Katie, our account director told me this beautiful story, about when she was growing up, between her and who would later become her stepdad. It was all about that little white lie you tell to someone, saying you like something that really you don't because it makes them feel good. It felt like such a great truth. And very relatable, we all have a story like that,” continues Connor, whose family has also suffered with dementia.
“There are occasions where their condition means they don't recognise you. It made me think, what if someone was revealing a little white lie to the person it was about, but they didn't realise? A secret being told to the person it is a secret about. A revealing of a generous act, whilst also trying to keep it a secret,” he adds.
In praise of generosity
The brand has alluded to further activity planned for the partnership with Alzheimer’s Research UK later in the year. And Nicholas is full of praise for VCCP as partners on the brand’s journey, describing the agency as “amazing” and lauding the shared belief in the platform. He also praises the collective resistance against doing something new simply for the sake of it, and consciously committing to consistency of message and building on what has come before.
“The ‘Generosity’ platform… was a big shift from the space in which the brand was operating in i.e., ‘Joy’ . With the power of hindsight, it's been the absolute right thing to do, but as you can imagine it took a lot of conviction on both sides to make that decision and then stick to it over the years,” Nicholas says. “It’s working for us.”