Tony's Chocolonely Turns Mondelēz Legal Action Into Campaign

Global confectionary producer Mondelēz International moved to protect its purple packaging by issuing a lawsuit against independent rival Tony's Chocolonely. The move came after Tony's began mimicking competitor brand packaging in a campaign to highlight child labor practices within cocoa farming. The campaign from Dutch-based Tony’s, released in Germany and Austria, saw it adopt similar packaging to chocolate brands including Mondelēz’s Milka, as well as Twix, KitKat and Ferrero Rocher, which are owned by Mars, Nestlé and Ferrero, respectively. Highlighting the legal injunction taken by Mondelēz (which also owns Cadbury and Toblerone), a LinkedIn post from Tony’s showcased a picture with a bar of chocolate entirely in grey with the statement and an arrow pointing to it that read, “not purple.” Alongside were the other three examples of packaging from the campaign that continue to use the rival brand colors. “A competitor has now obtained an injunction in court. Whilst Tony’s is appealing this injunction, it is required to comply in the meantime by removing all Swiss purple bars and images from the market,” said a spokesman for Tony’s. “We’ve had to change our bar but that doesn’t mean we’ll stop raising awareness around the biggest problems in cocoa, which include lack of living income, child exploitation and deforestation,” the Tony's spokesman added. According to the U.S Department of Labor, 1.56 million children are involved in child labor in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire. Mondelēz's Marketers Are Zeroing In on Creative Effectiveness A spokesperson for Mondelēz confirmed that the company issued an injunction around trademark infringement. "As a matter of practice, to protect the values of our brands, which we have worked hard to build over hundreds of years, we express our concerns to third parties when they are using a protected brand element,” the Mondelēz spokesperson added. Mondelēz's long-running trademark protection of purple This is not the first time that Mondelēz sought to protect the use of purple on its packaging. The company fought a long-running legal battle in the U.K. with Nestlé when the latter’s hazelnut and caramel chocolate called the Purple One and the Quality Street box decoration was threatened by the trademark restrictions. Mondelēz lost the case but said it would continue to protect its trademark that it introduced in 1995. Two years after the case, a cease and desist letter was sent by Mondelēz to Nurture Brands, which has begun to distribute a chocolate bar named The Primal Pantry in lilac similar to that of Milka. A former Mondelēz marketer confirmed to ADWEEK that the company owns the trademark for the use of the color purple in the sector. “This is a company that invests and believes in its brands. Some other companies would do the same to protect their big global brands. For example, I could imagine Coca-Cola being concerned about another brand using its Coca-Cola red,” they explained. Morgan Holt, chief strategy officer at Saffron Brand Consultants, explained that Mondelēz has a principle at stake when protecting its most distinctive assets. “Brands use colors, shapes and words to stimulate memorability. If they are used by others, copied and redistributed, they are diluted and become less effective as signals of the brand. It may be a knee-jerk response or ham-fisted handling, but if you believe in your brand, you have to believe that your brand's most valuable assets are worth protecting," added Holt.

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