The Diwali has ended and the sweets are still pending. Most
of the time it is leisure eating for a lazy weekend afternoon or for the late
comers for whom Diwali is till Tulsi Poojan so "Sab maaf aur plate
saaf".
Earlier it used to be chakli, Karaja, shankarpalli, ladoo
(those beautiful days). The preparation, the innocent stealing and getting
caught by mom and getting the punishment of helping her preparing the sweets
with her. Ohh… those memories.
Now that the life is about easy access and the malls are near,
still lazy? Few clicks and everything delivered to your door. The fun of sweet
preparation is no longer fun for people, it is now time consuming and tiring.
If all the time we are kitchen then how will we party at our friend’s place who
will order everything from these brands. The tradition of preparing sweets and
inviting friends and family to enjoy it.
This
year I was gifted with the prestigious ‘Cadbury Celebrations Rich Dry fruit
collection’. I will not deny I love chocolates and I have been around
chocolates for most of the time recently as my mom loves to make homemade
chocolate. She is extremely good at it too.
Being a design and in advertising, I am used to brand
everything even my mom’s homemade chocolate. It was named CHOCOLATE FACTORY.
But that story for some other day.
Today I am writing this for some very important reason. The
reason you will find heard of yet disgusting and heart breaking. One of the
biggest chocolate brand of the country has lost its loyalty and brand value in
my eye. Cadbury has always been a brand associated with happiness and memories
personally and generally too. From birthdays to general occasion Cadbury has
always been part of the event, making it sweeter every time.
Not long time back, there was many news of Cadbury loosing is
quality in product and hence as a brand. They also got India’s superstar Mr.
Amitabh Bachan as a brand ambassador to vouch for the quality and safety of the
product and revive the brand and build faith in consumer about the brand. But
how can a brand sustain only on a celebrity if the company doesn't back it up
with actual good quality product and giving false hopes about the product which
is actually of bad quality to an extent that it is dangerous to consume.
Coming back to the incident. I got this Cadbury Celebration
box and as any child irrespective of age, I got excited too to open the box and
have some delightful melting awesomeness in my mouth. But that was about to
change. I opened the box and got one chocolate out of the tray, never doubting
the brand I consumed it without checking and it turned out to be OK. I went for
another one but this time I fortunately checked the piece and to my horror it
had a bug in it. Yes it was alive and crawling as you can see in the image and
the video below.
It was having Diwali of its own, enjoying the chocolate all
by himself. I was shocked yet unsure, what I am witnessing is real. I checked
it again this time closely and it was worm and that too alive and kicking. For
a safer side I checked all the chocolate pieces and it turned out to be one
more in the same box with the fate of the worm not as lucky as the one in the
other piece.
It was unreal for me. A brand so big can have such product
out in the market without having through checking of it in quality department.
It is not about the brand image anymore but safety of the
consumer at stake. The major consumer of the product is kids. How can we let
kids have it when the product turns out to be filled with bugs.
Dear Cadbury, we can take care of our protein intake you
don’t need to add bugs in the chocolate to kill the delightful experience of
chocolates in our memory for ever. I don’t expect an apology or a refund from
you, but just an awareness for all my friends, family and all lovers of
chocolate; BRAND DOESN'T MAKE THE PRODUCT GOOD, GOOD PRODUCT MAKES THE BRAND.
BEWARE of the chocolate you consume or buying in future and
for Cadbury, improve you quality control, you lost one loyal customer and I
hope it doesn't go on till you are no longer a brand.
My memories are now bugged...
