CADBURY has unveiled a limited-edition Dairy Milk chocolate bar which will feature no words on the packaging.
The standard Cadbury illustrations will remain on the front of the new pack, but the words have been ‘donated’ to charity, with Cadbury partnering with Age UK after recent research found that 4.5 million older people felt lonely during later life and that half a million said it stopped them going out and about their everyday life.
The campaign, dubbed Donate Your Words, will see 30p from each bar sold donated to Age UK to help provide vital services and support to older people in need. The campaign will also encourage consumers to donate their own words by pledging to reach out and have a chat with older people in their communities.
Laura Gray, brand manager at Mondelez, said, “We’re so proud to announce this partnership and to be supporting Age UK – it’s such an important charity that is really tackling the issue of loneliness. We are donating the words from our bars of Cadbury Dairy Milk and encouraging people up and down the country to donate theirs through small gestures that could really help change the lives of older people.”
A survey of older people conducted by Cadbury and Age UK found that knowing their neighbours (38%) would give them the most confidence outside their home, followed by someone saying smiling or saying ‘hello’ (26%), or a neighbour saying ‘hello’ (26%) and finally someone asking how their day has gone (21%).
Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK, said, “Loneliness is a huge problem because retirement, bereavement & ill health mean many older people find they are spending a lot less time enjoying the company of others than they’d like.
“Loneliness can affect your health, your wellbeing and the way you see yourself – it can make you feel invisible and forgotten. Working with Cadbury Dairy Milk on this campaign could really help to raise even more awareness of the issue and encourage everybody to do their bit to help tackle it.
“A friendly ‘hello’ or ‘how are you?’ is something most of us take for granted – it’s just part of every day life, but these latest figures show that hundreds of thousands of older people in the UK will spend today and the rest of this week alone, with no one to share even a few simple words with. That’s why Age UK’s expert advice and support services are so crucial and help people in all sorts of ways, every day of the year.”
