Erase Valentine’s Day /

Romance is dead / By positioning itself as a Valentine's Day denier for the past five years, the brand has dodged the typical narrative of romantic gestures and instead embraced the anti-Valentine’s movement. This not only sets Cadbury 5 Star apart from traditional chocolate brands but also aligns perfectly with the product’s essence – it's not a luxurious chocolate that you’d give a partner, but rather, an indulgence meant for personal enjoyment. It’s a smart strategy to help it stand out during a crucial consumption occasion for chocolatiers – by carving out a distinct niche for itself in the crowded chocolate market on Valentine’s Day, Cadbury 5 Star shows that, sometimes, going against the grain is your brand’s best bet.

‘V-day presents a perfect opportunity for the brand to spotlight its proposition “Do Nothing” for the benefit of a huge chunk of its consumers- India’s single youth,’

Ogilvy India’s chief creative officer Sukesh Nayak told Contagious. ‘While competition sings the “love song” during V-day, it leaves out a measurable audience that feels lesser and uncomfortable with all the mush. Enabling them to Do Nothing amidst all the mush stands to build brand love, consideration and eventually increase sales volume for us at a time when our countercultural stance puts us at risk of being irrelevant.’

Dedication to you / This campaign underscores the importance of finding a compelling idea and sticking to it, a strategy exemplified by the brand's focus on catering to singletons during Valentine's Day. Notably, Cadbury 5 Star’s previous campaigns in 2022 and 2023 provided an alibi for singles seeking to skip the celebration and offered assistance in avoiding Valentine’s Day hot spots through a GPS-enabled web app. The brand’s commitment to helping singles on 14 February, reinforced with each activation, isn’t just a way to drive sales for its product on the day, it emboldens its image in the long term, making it appear cheeky, relatable and loveable.

Erase Valentine’s Day is a fresh execution on this strategy – but it’s also its boldest and most eye-catching one yet. By dispatching a vessel in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, enlisting a legendary space scientist and broadcasting the event online to a wide audience, the brand shows it is ready to go above and beyond to land its anti-Valentine’s joke. The brand’s consistent presence around Valentine’s Day also means that people now expect it to show up and deliver a worthwhile experience and the level of dedication that the brand shows with the ‘time-travel’ vessel is a huge PR coup for the brand that is unlikely to leave anyone disappointed.