12 Candy and Ice Cream Marketing Campaigns That Worked

Candy marketing campaigns that worked share one move: they tied a sweet to a feeling or a cause that people remembered without the product in hand. These 12 campaigns, from Cadbury's drumming gorilla to the Snickers hunger spots and the red Tony's Chocolonely bar, show how confectionery and ice cream brands built memory, and each entry names its source and its lesson.

How were these 12 candy campaigns chosen?

The campaigns were chosen because each is documented by the company, its agency, an award case study or named trade coverage, and each shows a different mechanism: a slogan, a spectacle, a cause, a partnership or a product position. Each entry says who reported the facts. Where only trade press is available, the entry says so, and where no result is public, the entry says that too.

Which 12 candy and ice cream campaigns worked?

The 12 campaigns below run from a 1957 slogan to a 2022 sourcing partnership, and each one carries a lesson a current brand can test.

1. Cadbury Dairy Milk "Gorilla" (2007)

Fallon created the Gorilla spot for Cadbury in 2007, showing an ape playing drums to Phil Collins. Contagious reported that the spot was meant to restore faith in the brand after a salmonella scare and led to a 10% increase in sales. The lesson: an entertaining idea can repair trust faster than an apology. The figure comes from trade press, not from Cadbury.

2. Cadbury "Generosity" (2017 onward)

Cadbury moved away from joy-themed spots after VCCP became its global creative lead in June 2017. Per the same Contagious report, Nielsen data published in The Grocer showed Cadbury was the largest and fastest-growing UK grocery brand in the period ending December 31, 2019. The lesson: returning to what a brand stood for can outperform a famous stunt.

3. Snickers "You're Not You When You're Hungry" (2010)

BBDO New York launched the line in the Super Bowl XLIV spot starring Betty White, per The Drum. In a case study published in Campaign by the team behind the work, Snickers said the campaign raised global sales 15.9% in its first full year and grew market share in 56 of the 58 markets where it ran. The campaign also won an IPA Effectiveness Awards gold, which The Creative Industries summarizes as US$376.3 million of global market share regained. The lesson: a human truth about the moment of use travels across markets.

4. Snickers "Hungerithm" in Australia (2016)

Mars Australia tracked the mood of Twitter and priced Snickers lower as the internet got angrier. In its WARC case entry, Mars reports a reach of more than 4 million Australians aged 18 to 35 and a 10% sales increase in a key retailer. The lesson: an established slogan can be turned into a real-time offer that people can see working.

5. Skittles "Commercial: The Broadway Musical" (2019)

In a Mars Wrigley release, Skittles announced a 30-minute musical written by playwright Will Eno with DDB Worldwide, performed once with a 17-member cast at The Town Hall in New York on Super Bowl Sunday, February 3, 2019. Ticket proceeds went to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and Skittles matched the donation, with a donation floor of $25,000 and a cap of $50,000 listed by Times Square NYC. The lesson: skipping the expensive ad slot can earn more attention than buying it.

6. Skittles "Most Exclusive Ad" (2018)

Marketing Dive reported that the 2019 musical followed a second consecutive year of Skittles building Super Bowl buzz without buying a spot during the game, and that the 2018 effort featured actor David Schwimmer. In an AdForum interview, DDB called the 2018 ad "uber-successful," which is the agency's own assessment. No sales result is published in the sources reviewed. The lesson: a repeatable stunt format builds anticipation for the next one.

7. Tony's Chocolonely "100% slave free" mission

Tony's Chocolonely describes itself in its annual FAIR report as an impact company that makes chocolate and exists to make 100% slave free the norm. Confectionery Production reported that 2024/25 revenue rose 20% from €200 million to €240 million, and that U.S. revenue grew 50%, making the United States its largest market for the first time. The lesson: when the mission is the product, every wrapper and report becomes advertising.

8. Ben and Jerry's and Tony's "Chocolatey Love A-Fair" (2022)

In August 2022, Ben and Jerry's joined Tony's Open Chain and announced a flavor and two bars for January 2023, according to the joint release. Ben and Jerry's said it would convert its ice cream portfolio to the Open Chain sourcing principles, starting with the cocoa in the base mix. The lesson: a partnership that changes sourcing gives the product launch a reason to exist.

9. Häagen-Dazs Free Cone Day and honey bees

Häagen-Dazs ties a free-scoop day to its honey bee support. Fox News reported a statement from Adam Hanson, president and general manager of the Häagen-Dazs Shoppe Company, about a May 14 Free Cone Day and work toward Bee Better Certification on some flavors. The lesson: a giveaway lands harder when it carries a cause customers can repeat.

10. Halo Top's lower-calorie pint (2017)

In a 2017 release, Halo Top founder and CEO Justin Woolverton said the brand had become the best-selling pint of ice cream in America, with 17 flavors at 240 to 360 calories per pint. The sources reviewed do not report later sales, so this entry makes no claim about what followed. The lesson: a product position can win fast, and it is easy for larger rivals to approach.

11. Kit Kat "Have a Break, Have a Kit Kat" (1957)

Donald Gilles of agency J. Walter Thompson wrote the line, first used in May 1957 and in television spots from 1958, according to Creative Review. In a law firm's summary of Nestlé v Mars, a 2002 survey found 98% of Britons would answer "Have a break" with "Have a Kit-Kat," yet Nestlé was denied registration of "Have a break" alone. The lesson: a long-running line becomes shorthand customers finish themselves, but a generic phrase cannot be owned on its own.

12. Reese's "Collision" campaign

Hershey's then vice president of chocolate marketing, Mike Holmes, told AdAge in 1998 that Ogilvy and Mather launched Reese's with the "Collision" campaign about chocolate in peanut butter and peanut butter in chocolate, as Tedium quotes the interview. Tedium found the earliest commercial in the "Two Great Tastes" run from 1972. The lesson: a product made of two ingredients can sell the combination as the whole idea.

What do the 12 candy campaigns have in common?

The 12 campaigns share one pattern: each gave people a single sentence, image or cause to repeat. The table groups them by the mechanism they used.

What should a candy brand do with these 12 examples?

A candy or ice cream brand should choose the one mechanism its product can own, then test whether a competitor could copy it in a year. Skittles and Snickers show a mechanism that can be repeated, while Kit Kat shows the limit of owning a phrase customers use freely.