Cadbury uses AI to let you star in one of its classic ads from the last 200 years

If you've always fancied being the star of your own advert, then Cadbury has just released a new Gen-AI powered tool that puts your face on one of its classic posters. Called My Cadbury Era, it's a free bit of fun via a website to celebrate its 200th anniversary this year. Its agency, VCCP London, is once again launching the campaign.

The tool, built by VCCP's digital agency Bernadette, allows users to upload selfies and choose their era from one of seven Cadbury ads. Users can also select how they would like to be represented. The tool then recreates the image featuring their likeness. Anyone participating is automatically entered into a prize draw to win £200.

A social and D/OOH campaign is supporting the activation, and Cadbury has also partnered with influencers to help demonstrate how the tool works and share their posters online.

"We started off our 200 years celebrations by asking the public to go into their family albums and share photographs of themselves with Cadbury over the years," says Phil Warfield, marketing director at Cadbury. "Now we are inviting the public to be a part of our posters, developing a tool that celebrates not only the rich heritage of Cadbury but also our relationship with the public."

Using AI image inference on the original archive adverts, throwing in a little power from Stable Diffusion, and the creativity of the team that developed the tool allowed for the "reimagining of historic posters in a way that felt true to Cadbury."

Furthermore, VCCP and Cadbury worked with a leading LGBTQ+ charity and members of Mondelẽz International's diversity and inclusion network to ensure the activation was as inclusive as possible.

So, how does it work exactly? Well, the tool first asks if you're over eighteen. You then choose your preferred poster, which offers a nice glimpse into Cadbury's creative archive. Then, you select your skin tone and choose how you want to look in your poster: feminine, masculine, or gender-neutral. You must then enter your contact details to progress...Annoyingly, it also asks for your phone number for verification. You then take or upload your photo and await the results – which Cadbury declares "might take up to an hour" based on "current queue times". Meanwhile, you can browse a gallery of other creations or learn more about its birthday celebrations.

"My Cadbury Era is a product of human design and creativity which was boosted by Gen-AI technology to make something that wasn't previously possible – using cutting edge techniques to bring something from the archives up to date and into a modern environment," says Jonny Goodall, from Bernadette.

My Cadbury Era was further brought to life with the help of VCCP's global content creation studio Girl&Bear, with media led by Publicis Media, owned channels by Elvis, and PR and influencer content led by Ogilvy. To create your own Cadbury poster, visit the website.