1950: “The thicker the block, the better the choc”

November 15, 2019

By AHNZ

Check out how New Zealand chocolate consumption has changed here. In particular, how Cadbury have flip-flopped on their old virtues…

“The thicker the block, the better the choc”- Cadbury advertising in 1950

vs

“We’ve made the call to reduce the size of our Cadbury family blocks so that they can…”- Cadbury advertising 2019

I’ve got this idea that inflation is not only a monetary phenomena. New Zealand has also been getting poorer in other ways such as the plummeting of our Social Capital. When it comes to chocolate we suffer from Food Inflation.

Is our flour quality anything near as good as the 1890s? Are we better off with synthetics instead of wool? Are our plastic goods better than the old durable metal and canvass of old? Is our beer as good even as colonial beer? Is our cheese and butter as good as the 1960s or our music as good as the 1980s? Are our schools, postal systems, politicians, cabbages and kings half as good as they used to be? Are our Ginger Nuts and Pineapple Lumps anything near as good?

If some Year 2020 chocolate were offered to a man from 1950 (fresh out of cryogenic suspension) would he spit it out as a fraud? I think so!

• See also

1896: Good Honest Chocolate
1990s: Social Capital Tanks
2009: Cadbury Switched to Palm Oil

—

Ref. The Christchuch Star-Sun, 16 Dec 1950

Ref. Cadbury dropping the size of family chocolate block; New Zealand Herald

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