Cadbury confectionery company has been widely ridiculed for the launch of its new multicoloured “Unity bar” reportedly devoted to celebrating diversity in India.
The chocolate bar that was introduced on 15 August - India’s Independence Day – is divided equally between four flavours: dark, blended, milk and white.
“India’s first chocolate with dark, blended, milk, white united in one bar made to celebrate India and her people, because sweet things happen when we unite,” claimed Cadbury’s commercial, which presents the bar in different languages.
Netizens didn't hesitate to take digs at the company for presenting the serious issue of racism in a less than “sweet” way.
For example, New York Times columnist Tejal Rao sarcastically congratulated the confectionery magnate for “solving racism”, while The Atlantic’s editor Prashant Rao suggested that if the “four-in-in chocolate bar” was launched earlier, India’s religious issues over the past 72 years could have been solved.
Some netizens, however, pointed out that the bar still either did not cater to some minorities, or remained “racist” in its essence for putting milk chocolate at the top of the bar.
One of the users decided to solve the “racial puzzle” by mixing all chocolate pieces in the bar to avoid segregation.
India is the second most populous country in the world, with a strong cast and religious division existing between Hindu, Muslim, Christian and representatives of other religions, accompanied by some violent conflicts in the past. Cadbury started importing chocolate to India in 1948, just a year after it received an independence from the British Empire as a colony and partitioned with Pakistan.