Cadbury’s giving away free sports gear with chocolate bars – good idea?

From here

I can’t see why there is so much controversy about this issue.

I believe that Cadbury’s is doing a good deed, benefitting both them and consumers, which will bring free sports equipment to children. The amount of chocolate consumed by children will not change (dramatically) IMHO, (perhaps the brand will if they are saving for a particular item) and I see this as an entirely positive thing which can encourage kids to play more sports, not eat more chocolate.

All the talk about the amount of calories that need to be consumed to receive a free basketball or whatever is a complete red-herring. It’s not like one person is going to eat all the chocolate needed to get the number of wrappers required. Whole classes could pool resources, families and friends too.

This is much like the similar response (a few years ago) given to the Computers for Schools scheme run by Tesco’s.

I feel the criticism is completely unjustified.

What’s your thoughts?

Isn’t that a bit like handing out free samples of Astroglide to promote celibacy?

Well it’s certainly a good idea from Cadbury’s own point of view given the amount of publicity it’s generated.

IMHO you’ve got it about right that kids won’t be encouraged to eat more chocolate by this scheme. I don’t think they’ll be encouraged to play much more sport either though because I reckon kids would need far more motivation than just collecting sweet wrappers.

Very much a storm in a teacup one way or the other. Apparently it was the lead item on Richard & Judy the other day too, which is one of my favourite litmus tests for overblown nonsense.

:smiley: This is bloody hilarious!!

The thing is that kids will eat the chocolate anyway. It’s not as if they are going to run out and buy a few extra bars just to earn a football or some other piece of equipment.

No big deal. ::shrug::

I think kids will buy and eat more chocolate because of this promotion. If it didn’t increase sales, why would companies do promotions like these, and especially the ones that aren’t for charity and generate little or no publicity?

That said, I don’t think it would increase consumption per child enough to make a significant health difference. But to think kids won’t eat more chocolate because of a promotion denies the primary purpose behind the promotion.

Well, Walkers crips had the books for schools thing a while back, and I can’t remember me or my friends buying more than the usual amount. The only difference was that we remembered to save the packets.

Brand name recognition. Little Bobby wants to buy a chocolate bar… will he buy one that just has the candy, or one that offers an incentive plus the candy? The end result will be the same… one candy bar eaten.

I will admit that some folks will buy more because of the contest, but I can’t see the average consumer eating more.