Cadbury apologises to Naomi Campbell over 'racist' ad

Confectionary brand Cadbury has apologised to Naomi Campbell after complaints that an advert comparing the supermodel to one of its chocolate bars was racist.

Last weekend, Campbell threatened to sue Cadbury over an advertising campaign for the Bliss range of Dairy Milk chocolate bars, which featured the strapline: "Move over Naomi, there's a new diva in town."

Despite Cadbury intending the ad to be a tongue-in-cheek play on Campbell's reputation for diva-style behaviour, the 41-year-old model described it as "insulting and hurtful".

She added: "It's upsetting to be described as chocolate, not just for me, but for all black women and black people. I do not find any humour in this. It is insulting and hurtful."

Campaign group Operation Black Vote also hit out at the advert and called for people to boycott Cadbury's products.

Simon Wooley, of the OBV, said: "[The] only recourse black people have is not to buy its chocolate... Racism in the playground starts with black children being called 'chocolate bar'.

The advert was created for Cadbury by the Fallon agency, which also produced the acclaimed drumming gorilla television campaign for Dairy Milk. The confectionary giant, now part of the Kraft empire, pulled the advert soon after the controversy broke.

In a statement published today on its website, the company said: "Cadbury takes its responsibility to consumers very seriously indeed and we would never deliberately produce any marketing material we felt might cause offence to any section of society.

"It was not our intention that this campaign should offend Naomi, her family or anybody else and we are sincerely sorry that it has done so. We can confirm that the advertisement is no longer in circulation and we will not be using it in future marketing for Cadbury Dairy Milk Bliss.

"We have been in discussions with Naomi's solicitors and can confirm that they have accepted our apology on her behalf as a conclusion to this issue."

Campbell said that she was "pleased" that Cadbury had apologised for the advert, and noted that the case highlighted the need for "greater diversity" at board and senior management level of most major corporations.

UK regulator the Advertising Standards Authority has so far received four complaints about the campaign, and is examining whether an investigation needs to be launched into potential breaches of the advertising code.