Last month Naomi Campbell took offense after Cadbury referenced her in an ad featuring a chocolate bar sitting on a mound of diamonds. Quite a burn considering Naomi's blood diamond past [click here if you missed that]. It took several days but Cadbury finally removed the ad from circulation and issued Naomi a formal apology. To her credit Naomi's response was way less bitchy than I thought it would be ...
From the Cadbury UK Press Center
Cadbury understands that our latest advertising campaign for Cadbury Dairy Milk Bliss caused upset to Naomi Campbell and her family. Cadbury takes its responsibility to consumers very seriously indeed and we would never deliberately produce any marketing material we felt might cause offence to any section of society. It was not our intention that this campaign should offend Naomi, her family or anybody else and we are sincerely sorry that it has done so.
We can confirm that the advertisement is no longer in circulation and we will not be using it in future marketing for Cadbury Dairy Milk Bliss.
We have been in discussions with Naomi‘s solicitors and can confirm that they have accepted our apology on her behalf as a conclusion to this issue.
Naomi quoted in The Guardian
"I'm pleased that Cadbury have made a 'sincere apology' in regards to their Bliss ad campaign. The advertisement was in poor taste on a number of levels, not least in the way they likened me to their chocolate bar. It is also a shame that it took so long for Cadbury to offer this apology."
"I hope they and other multinationals can learn from this; that offense may not be their intention, but when it is shown that it has caused offense a sincere apology straight away goes a long a way."
"Better still they should avoid causing offense in the first place which is best achieved by having greater diversity at board and senior management level."
