The fundamental principles for making a chocolate Advent calendar are quite simple: 1. Make an Advent calendar, with the requisite number of windows. 2. Put a chocolate behind each one.
For Tony’s Chocolonely, a company on a mission to educate customers about the wrongs of the world, this was not good enough. Instead, it left the window for December 8 empty.
Much to the company’s surprise, this did not go down well with some of their younger customers. Instead of saying, “Oh, look, there’s no chocolate here! That must be a sophisticated metaphor for the inequalities in the world, thus highlighting the appalling slave labour practices of the company’s less scrupulous rivals”, some children were upset.
Tears were shed and parents were forced to assuage their distraught offspring in the only way they knew: by offering them yet more chocolate.
Now Tony’s Chocolonely, whose calendar sold nationwide in supermarket chains, independent retailers and via Ocado online, has apologised for causing “confusion and disappointment”.
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The company, which says its mission is to fight “illegal child labour and modern slavery”, said that no one would miss out because it had slipped two chocolates in for both December 9 and 24, so people would finish up with 25 chocolates from 24 windows.
One mother, Rebecca Winward, said: “My eight-year-old daughter was in floods of tears at the disappointment. She has ADHD and is awaiting a possible autism diagnosis, so what seems like small upsets to others are a big deal to her.”
Another mother posted on the company’s Facebook page: “I get the reason why but think wrong not to pre-warn.”
Laura Tylor wrote: “Calendars are for children and tears before school is not ideal. If you want to make a statement, advise for adults/older children only.” Lisbeth King said that she supported the company’s ethos but complained: “Don’t feel I need to be taught a lesson by my advent calendar. You��re rather preaching to the converted here.”
After a day of criticism the company said it accepted its “unequally divided calendar” was “inappropriate and caused confusion and disappointment”. It added: “We failed to consider the difficulties empty windows can cause for neurodivergent children and adults. We have more to learn in considering how we can make our products as inclusive as possible. At Tony’s we use our products to tell the story of the choco industry — an industry unequally divided and choc-full of inequality.”
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The company’s explanation won praise from some parents, who said it inspired a conversation that helped to teach their children about ethics and economics. Hilary Pyburn said: “I’m enjoying the advent calendar and its message. Keep challenging inequality.”
The company says at least 30,000 adults and children are forced to work in the industry for no pay, and in Ghana and the Ivory Coast, where more than 60 per cent of the world’s cocoa is produced, at least 1.56 million children work under illegal conditions because of their families’ desperate poverty. It said that cocoa farmers were trapped in poverty because giant chocolate companies pay them so poorly, with rates of as little as 70p a day in the Ivory Coast.
Nicola Matthews, a spokeswoman, said: “Our intention was to increase issue awareness because only when people are aware that there is a bitter side to the chocolate industry can they choose more consciously and demand change from the big chocolate companies perpetuating the problem. We’ve had several hundred calls, emails and social media messages over the past few days. The reaction overall has been a positive one.”
