Cadbury's Dancing Monks Are a Total Embarrassment

Cadbury's Glass and a Half Full Productions comes up empty with this visually lush but oddly soulless 90-second spot filmed in China by Ogilvy Johannesburg. It features a monastery of wacky dancin' monks, lots of purple balloons, and one helium-sucking holy man who really should've taken a vow of silence. Injecting goofball shenanigans into a quasi-mystical setting yields an East-West disconnect that's ultimately so crass and vapid, it's painful to watch. Even worse, the ad seems to want to say something profound, but there's no chance of making a meaningful point with this kind of set-up.