
This clip is from a series of ads that persuasively argue that Milk Tray chocolates can transform the everyday into a special occasion, satisfy desires and mend rocky relationships.
In it, a man in a telephone booth argues with a woman on the phone. After hanging up, he holds up a box of Milk Tray chocolates and says to camera, 'Lucky I’ve got these’. Next, he embraces the woman he was arguing with, holding the Milk Tray box behind her back. He winks and the ad concludes with the jingle. Summary by Poppy De Souza.
What is appealing about a good jingle is also what quickly becomes annoying – it sticks in your memory! The bubbly musical element in these advertisements introduces the idea that Milk Tray chocolates have a transformative potential to brighten and enliven the world. The everyday becomes a 'Milk Tray day’ – whether having fun, a fun night out, or a fun night in.
In this advertisement, where the man placates his date with a box of Milk Tray chocolates, uses the catchphrase 'he likes Milk Tray, she likes Milk tray’. In this context, their reasons for liking the chocolates are different – they rescue him from trouble, but she appreciates they’re a gift and likes them because, well, they’re chocolates. One of the slogans for Cadbury’s Roses chocolates from the late 1960s was 'when you get a box of Roses chocolates, you’ve got yourself a man’. This ad contains the formula of men giving and women receiving which runs throughout many of these advertisements.
Notes by Poppy De Souza
The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia acknowledges Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we work and live and gives respect to their Elders both past and present.