The Risks of Chocolate Advertising

Ferrero White Kisses.
ferreroFerrero, Europe’s biggest confectionery company, has been forced to pull its ads for their new line of white chocolate kisses. The product was designed for the German market, where white chocolate is more popular than it is in the US. Ferrero’s ads use the slogans ‘Germany chooses white’, ‘Germany votes white’, and ‘White kisses are best.’ Furious Germans demanded that Ferrero pull these ads because they mirror the position of Germany’s far-right anti-Semitic party, the NPD, which wants to restrict immigration to Germany to white Christians only. Obviously Ferrero wasn’t trying to develop a candy that would appeal to Nazis. They just hadn’t considered how these ads would sound in Germany, where neo-fascism is a very sensitive issue.