Cadbury 5 Star flips its Valentine’s script with 1 million sponsored dates

New Delhi: Cadbury 5 Star has released a new Valentine’s Day campaign that marks a shift in its long-running anti-Valentine’s positioning, with the brand announcing it will sponsor one million dates as part of a new narrative built around its “Do Nothing” philosophy.

The chocolate brand, known for its “Eat 5 Star. Do Nothing” tagline, has in previous years released campaigns that discouraged participation in Valentine’s Day celebrations. Last year’s “Destroy Valentine’s Day” campaign encouraged older family members to interrupt the occasion. In its latest campaign, however, the brand states it is “ending the war” against the day before introducing a twist in the storyline.

A teaser film released on the brand’s YouTube channel, conceptualised by Ogilvy, stated that the company would spend its marketing budget on sponsoring one million dates. This was followed by a reveal film that presents the campaign as a research-led attempt to recreate what Valentine’s Day may have looked like when it was first conceived, with the brand claiming to have developed research-backed date itineraries.

The narrative then introduces an unexpected turn, returning to the brand’s familiar positioning by suggesting that the best way to observe the day is to do nothing. The campaign is supported by a web platform where users can register for the proposed dates.

Nitin Saini, Vice President - Marketing, Mondelez India, said, “Cadbury 5 Star has always approached Valentine’s Day with playful mischief, and this year we wanted to evolve that narrative in a way that surprises audiences and drives engagement. By ‘ending the war’ and announcing 1 million sponsored dates only to reveal it as a classic 5 Star bluff, we created a campaign that brings consumers in on the joke while reinforcing our ‘Do Nothing’ philosophy. It’s our way of keeping Valentine’s Day fun, relaxed and unmistakably 5 Star.”

Sukesh Kumar Nayak, Chief Creative Officer, Ogilvy India said, “5 Star's Valentine's Day campaign has become an annual tradition by now, with several widely popular editions that offered to save audiences from all the hype. But this year, Karunasagar Sridharan (ECD) and the Ogilvy team proposed an idea that takes the brand in a completely unexpected direction - sponsoring 1 million dates in order to 'restore' the day to its original form.

But there's a twist - a surprising truth bomb that might just change the way we look at Valentine's Day forever. Yet again, the brand has pulled off an unconventional stunt that only 5 Star can get away with. The campaign is supported by a web platform put together by our Creative Tech team where couples can sign up for the free dates."

Shekhar, President, Client Solutions, South Asia, Wavemaker added, “This year, Cadbury 5Star takes its iconic ‘Do Nothing’ manifesto from philosophy to provocation. We introduce Esther Howland as a never-before-seen celebrity endorser not to celebrate romance, but to interrupt it.

By reimagining this historical figure across modern cultural touchpoints, we position her as a ‘circuit breaker’ in the romance economy. From endless digital scrolls to real-world dating hotspots, our media intervention disrupts predictable Valentine narratives, nudging Gen Z to opt out, slow down, and unapologetically ‘Do Nothing.’”