The Cadbury Crunchie Con

I'm tired of corporations cheaping-out on their products. At this point I'm not saying that Cadbury, once an A+ company, has cheaped-out on their fabulous Crunchie bar, but let's look at the overwhelming evidence against them.

In recent months Suz and I have noticed something. The chocolate surrounding their Crunchie bar has diminished in quality severely. It tastes like the "water chocolate" Easter bunny that your cheap uncle Stan used to buy for you when you were nine.

However, the Cadbury website claims that the chocolate surrounding the Crunchie bar is "rich, creamy 'Dairy Milk' milk chocolate."

What a load.

Suz and I purchased a Dairy Milk bar for testing purposes. It was a 100 g. bar, and it cost $1.77. Our objective was to determine if the chocolate on the Crunchie bar is what Cadbury claims - "Dairy Milk" chocolate. We tasted the chocolate with a scientific mindset and told our tastebuds to judge it fairly. We quickly realized it was far superior to the Crunchie chocolate, and that the two were not the same at all. The Results of our Experiment: It was most definitely not the same chocolate enveloping the Crunchie bar, and Suz had something to say about that.

To: Consumer.Relations@brandspeoplelove.com
Dear Cadbury,

Your chocolate is the most delicious in all the world, but sadly I've recently noticed a change in my favourite bar, the Crunchie. It seems the chocolately coating is not the same Cadbury chocolate that it used to be. Is a different, inferior chocolate now being used to coat the Crunchie bar? If so, please add my letter to the pile that I can only assume is growing, and once a sizeable mound of mail has accumulated, please heave it onto the president's desk.

In all seriousness, can you tell me if this is a permanent change or if there is some hope for the original Crunchie's return?

Yours truly,
Suz
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And their reply, which they should be thoroughly embarrassed about:

Dear Suz,

Thank you for contacting us about Cadbury Crunchie. Your comments and inquiries are appreciated because they provide valuable feedback about our brands. Cadbury Schweppes has been making great brands that people love for more than 200 years. We are proud of our family of beverage and confectionery products and are committed to providing a wide range of choices for all individuals.

We will forward your comments to our Marketing Department for review.

Thank you for taking the time to contact us. We hope that you will continue to purchase and enjoy our products.

Sincerely,
Consumer Relations
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Um, what? We didn't ask for a history lesson here. What kind of customer service is that? The nameless customer service rep, probably afraid to be fired if he used his real name in that ridiculous excuse for an answer, sidestepped the issue entirely. But the rep made an even bigger mistake. He didn't deny the chocolate recipe change. And we all know what that means... It's true.

So, what did they think? That they could quietly slip this inferior chocolate bar onto our shelves? Did they think their life-long customers were a bunch of stupid twits who wouldn't notice? Did they think we would still buy their crappy chocolate bar? Well.... yeah, I guess they did. Boy, were they wrong.