Kinder Bueno - "Le plaisir pour les petites faims"

Recently, I had to write a few paragraphs for French class outlining the differences between Australian and French advertisements. Being both a chocolate and tennis fan, I couldn't get past the second intallment of the French Kinder Bueno television advertisement, featuring French tennis great, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, and French actress, Laetitia Fourcade. You can check it out in the YouTube vid below:

Notice how there's a message displayed across the screen throughout the whole ad? It translates to, "For your health, do regular physical activity". The web address that is included at the end links to the website of Manger Bouger ('eat, move'), a national nutritional health program. Interestingly, this is because French law requires that all television and radio ads for food products must have accompanying messages about the benefits of balanced diets, or, judging by this ad, I suppose on the importance of exercise for good health.

On the other hand, I think Australian food advertising regulations only specify that advertisements are not allowed to give false nutritional information (which shouldn't need to be said anyway), and must be able to substantiate general health claims or have pre-approval by FSANZ (Food Standards Aus and NZ) for more specific nutritional/health benefit claims. I don't know if this is also the case for French regulations, but how good would it be if these two systems were merged? Physical activity, eating from all food groups, and moderating intake of alcohol and foods high in saturated fat and sugar might sound like the obvious thing to do for most people, but, believe you me, there are people out there who just don't get it, and who believe what they see and hear on TV or the radio more than what health professionals tell them.

But, where was I going with this? Ah, yes: the chocolate in question.

I had to watch the ad several times, pausing and replaying, to try to catch all the words for my transcript. You have no idea how much it made me crave for a delicious stick of Bueno, which has long been a favourite chocolate bar of mine. Admittedly, the ad itself is not that great - a bit annoying actually, if you have to watch it over and over - but, for me, the chocolate pretty much sells itself, and it helps, too, that Tsonga displays such cute and animated expressions, which you don't normally see when he's playing on court.

I don't believe there is anyone who hasn't had this chocolate bar before, but for those who haven't, this is a chocolate product by Italian confectionary company, Ferrero. It's a stick of milk chocolate-covered crunchy wafer, encasing a creamy hazelnut filling - delicious! Ferrero also makes a similar, and equally tasty, product called Kinder Happy Hippo, which is smaller, shaped like a hippopotamus, and its bottom is dipped in crunchy bits of what tastes like rice crispies. However, this product is not as readily available in supermarkets; I've only ever seen them at the counters of big warehouse pharmacies (oh, the irony).     

Having said all that, I don't think I need to explain what I bought as part of my post-dance class snack shopping last night....

Post-dance and study snacks (*ahem* very healthy choices, as you can see)

YUM. Need I say more?