Chocolates are generally considered the favorites of children. Therefore, advertisements for chocolates target children. However, over the years, chocolate ads have shifted their focus from children to adults. Advertisements of mints too no longer necessarily focus on the core idea of the product-fresh breath. In order to stand out in the crowd, advertisements for these products are becoming innovative in the way they present chocolates and mints to consumers. This article traces the shifting focus of chocolate and mint ads and discusses the relative advantages and disadvantages. A few other possible focus areas have also been suggested.

A woman once remarked, "You could leave me in a room quite safely with your husband, your tiara or your cheque book, but not with your open box of chocolates", she was a member of Chocolate Unanimous-an American appreciation society. Such is the impact of chocolate on people. Everyone is enamored by its taste and flavor. Mints are not far behind in terms of the instant liking the consumer has for them, although the core benefit is fresh breath. It is, therefore, interesting to analyze the advertisements for these products: What features do they highlight? Who is the target market? And how effective are these ads? In fact, the focus of these ads has been constantly changing over the years.

In the food industry, every product that comes to our mind has a health benefit associated with it. For example, think of health drinks and immediately the `stronger, taller' tag comes to mind. Think of breakfast foods and the iron and carbohydrate advantage strikes you. Think of the protein content in biscuits and fruit benefits in juices. Dairy products come with a focus on calcium needs. Even snacks sometimes offer low calorie content. So, there is a reason for eating most of these food items and the advertisements for these naturally focus on the health benefits. However, chocolates and mints are exceptions. Chocolates bring taste and mints bring fresh breath, but no big reason or health benefit is associated with eating them. So what do the advertisers focus on?

It is true that a Cadbury's Dairy Milk ad which shows milk pouring into the chocolate bar and cream topping it stirs your taste buds. A mint advertisement showing waterfalls and windsurfing brings a cool, fresh sensation. But there are also advertisements that do not talk much about the core benefit and still make you feel good. Sometimes, we don't even understand how the ad talks about the product! Nevertheless, we feel good about watching it. But do these advertisements actually do what they have to - make the viewer buy the product? That is to be analyzed.

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