Don’t take our chocolate!

Don’t take our chocolate!

Chocolate lovers have a brand loyalty that many companies would pay ‘big money’ to achieve. When you mess with a chocolate lover’s chocolate it is like you are messing with their self-declared identity.  You are attacking them personally.

This kind of attack will never end well!

There are many reasons why a sense of self, becomes so wrapped up with chocolate. Maybe because it still has whispers of a sense of luxury (they were a highly prized ‘unnecessary’ item during war time). Perhaps it’s because we so often turn to chocolate for comfort, or because it was the food of choice that we were bribed with when we were children. We cannot forget how the marketers have convinced us that ‘Yorkie is not for girls,’ or ‘Just because the lady loves Milk Tray’, the humble chocolate has also become an aspirational brand.

So, chocolate appeals to us in many ways, and not just because we have been convinced that dark chocolate is good for us, or that chocolate is better than sex!

Global companies have suffered from reputational hits when they have changed the size of the chocolate or changed the ingredients. They have been accused of not caring for their customers or forgetting their roots. Chocolate companies have survived our ire because they are the ones that are providing our ‘drug of choice’, we need them more than they need us.

However, I’m not sure how the British Government will fair in the reputation stakes when it comes to ‘messing with our chocolate’. There is a lot of consternation surrounding Brexit and what it will mean for the sovereign nations of the United Kingdom. There are concerns for the economy, health, defence, collaboration; amongst a myriad of other very important issues. There is so much to be concerned about, many remain paralysed as to what to do or think next.

Then there is chocolate.

We are being told two things, a) Brexit will mean that chocolate will either become more expensive or smaller b) Public Health England has said they want the food industry to cut the overall sugar content in chocolate.

They can meet the targets by a) reformulating chocolate b) reduce portion sizes.

The very thing that chocolate lovers hate. They have been unable to attack chocolate companies, but will they attack the Government? Is this the one thing about Brexit and annoyance with the Government, that people will unite over?

One thing is for sure, whilst taking away our chocolate is a trivial thing, it is perhaps one more pebble thrown at a Government that already has a negative reputation. How many more things will it take for the straw to break the camel’s back?

What do you think?