The other day while grocery shopping at HEB, we came across a Yorkie-brand candy bar from the UK with the tagline "It's Not for Girls" written on the wrapper. A candy bar that's not for girls? We were intrigued.
What could be so special about a candy bar that only men could have it? Were there pictures of naked women on the inside of the wrapper? Or, was it beer-flavored chocolate with hunks of bacon? We couldn't figure it out, so we bought it.
Nestle, which makes Yorkie, adopted the "It's Not for Girls" slogan to compete with Cadbury's Dairy Milk. "[W]e felt that we needed to take a stand for the British bloke and reclaim some things in his life, starting with his chocolate. Most men these days feel as if the world is changing around them and it has become less and less politically correct to have anything that is only for males," explained Nestle's marketing director in a 2002 Guardian article.
Some of the other overseas ad campaigns for the candy bar are "Don't feed the birds," "Not available in pink," and "King size not queen size."
We first tried the pure-milk chocolate version. This blue-wrapped contraband was just a Hershey bar on steroids. No filling, no scandalous pictures, not even a peanut or two - just an oversize piece of so-so chocolate. Our money would have been better spent on a Dove chocolate bar. Maybe the second bar we tried would hold some mysterious surprise that only a man could enjoy.
Nope. The purple-wrapped "raisin and biscuit" version was the same milk chocolate chunks with some crisped rice and raisins. Yes, we also were confused with the color choice for a man's candy bar. We would have picked green, but we guess raisins equal purple, or something like that. This bar did taste better than the plain chocolate - a bit like Raisinets. But it didn't blow us away. So, after all the hype banning girls from this candy, it's not even that good.
Guys, you can have your chocolate bar. We won't fight you for it. We won't even dress up like a guy to steal it. There are much better international candy bars out there that don't need an edgy slogan.