05 September 2023 , 08:55
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Back in 2001 Nestle introduced a controversial slogan for its Yorkie chocolate bar - stating 'It's not for girls'. The £3m advertising campaign, which saw television adverts and billboards with men eating the bar, was slammed as 'sexist'. Back in 2006, a tongue-in-cheek version of the bar was released in pink wrapping paper, but it wasn't until 2011 that the slogan was finally dropped.
Although, people to this day still remember it. Recently, people have re-discovered a Yorkie ad from 2002, which proved especially controversial at the time. The advert shows a woman, who is disguised as a man in a bid to fool the shopkeeper, being denied a Yorkie bar after answering a series of 'manly' questions.
In the advert a girl could be seen in a 'male' disguise (Nestle)The shopkeeper asks: "You're not a man are you? Explain the offside rule then." He then goes on to ask the customer prove her 'masculinity' by completing a number of sexist tasks, including opening a jar, not being scared of a spider and deciding whether they prefer stocking or tights. He eventually sees through her disguise and denies her the chocolate bar, but it doesn't stop her trying again with a number of other women dressed in disguises.
The Yorkie slogan is then displayed on the screen. It said: "Five big chunks of masculine chocolate. Yorkie... It's not for girls." The advert has recently resurfaced on social media, with many people sharing their opinions. While some people were gobsmacked at the sexism, others said it was "genius" because it prompted women to buy them in defiance.
Yorkie eventually dropped the 'not for girls' slogan (Mirrorpix)One person on TikTok said: "As a girl I simply accepted the fact I would be arrested for attempting to buy a Yorkie." Another added: "Yep, and I remember the massive kick-off. I haven't bought a Yorkie since." However, others weren't as outraged by seeing the advert. One person on Facebook wrote: "Ahh back in the day when people actually laughed at jokes." Another added: "Never bought so many Yorkies in my life, how dare they say me, a girl, can't have them. The advertising team were genius really, as not a lot of girls were buying them."
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A third agreed, adding: "My sisters ate more Yorkies than me, was proper genius. Buy so many people don't understand the difference between a joke and sexism." At the time, marketing director at Nestle Andrew Harrison said: "Most men these days feel as if the world is changing around them and it has become less and less politically correct to have anything that is only for males. Yorkie feels that this is an important element of men's happiness and is starting the reclaiming process of making a particular chocolate just for men."