It’s hard to say whether the cutaway to the chocolate box label as the man climbs the hill is an attempt at subliminal advertising or simply groovy late ’60s-early ’70s editing (or a bit of both!). Either way, this ad is a far cry from the comparative innocence of the 1950s commercial for Milk Tray showing two intertwined hands (see Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate – 'Remember … Cadbury’s Milk Tray’). Here, the lovers rush towards each other in a park and embrace with a kiss before the man hands his lady a box of chocolates.

Milk Tray chocolates have moved from being a prompt for romance in the 1950s to being the more forthright 'little sign of love’, as the jingle in this advertisement goes. It is one of a series of ads which played the same Cadbury theme song over scenes of lovers meeting and embracing in public places. The male and female roles in this ad are still very traditional, with the man giving and the woman receiving, but advertisements for other Cadbury products around this time (such as Roses chocolates) began to break the mould by appealing to a woman’s desire to treat herself to something special.

Notes by Poppy De Souza