Cadbury celebrates its 200th birthday by reworking the iconic ‘Mum’s Birthday’ ad

A well-received print ad is also part of the chocolate maker’s celebrations. 

Not everyone lives to the age of 200. Cadbury is one of the rare beings to have enjoyed this feat, and its celebrations for this joyous occasion involve a revisit and rework of its iconic Mum’s Birthday ad from 2018 in the United Kingdom.

Then made by creative agency VCCP and directed by Frederic Planchon, the ad featured – set in the 19th century – a young girl buying a Cadbury Dairy Milk bar for her mum on her birthday with plastic rings and buttons, which the shopkeeper generously accepts.

Jump to 2023, and it is the same ad, the same agency, the same director, and even the same cast – except the little girl who, as per Ad Age, was grown up, so the agency used “digital trickery” to keep her in this ad – and yet, there are changes. 

The mother and daughter halt in front of the same store, and while mum goes to make a call at a telephone booth, the daughter enters the shop to buy a Cadbury Dairy Milk bar for her mum’s birthday. 

From the start of the 60-second-long ad till the end, decades pass by in blink-and-you-miss bits, most notably in the packaging of the Cadbury Dairy Milk bar and the attire of the shopkeeper; despite the time-travel, he still accepts the little girl’s knick-knacks as currency. 

John Cadbury founded the confectionery company in 1846 in Birmingham, England, and today, it is one of the world’s most famous names. On February 2, 2010, Cadbury became a part of Kraft Foods (known as Mondelez since 2012). 

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Complementing this reworked ad was a print spot – the one from The Times newspaper is doing the rounds and garnering applause – of the Cadbury logo pasted on a deep purple page that is the chocolate maker’s famous brand colours. 

Do not miss the '200' neatly glowing like gold inside the Cadbury logo. 

Publicis Media, as per Ad Age, was in charge of the media planning and execution of the birthday campaign.  

The brand turned 75 years old in India last year in 2023, and it celebrated its birthday by distributing a limited-edition collection of Cadbury Dairy Milk bars in packaging from the years gone by amongst the creator crowd.