Tony's Chocolonely forges debut media partnership with the Washington Post - Confectionery Production

Posted: 18 October 2024

Related topics: child labour, cocoa, confectionery, supply chains

Related people: Teun van de Keuken

Related regions: europe, netherlands, US, worldwide

Dutch-headquartered confectionery impact brand, Tony’s Chocolonely has forged a bold industry-first partnership with the Washington Post media that aims to highlight its campaign to end cocoa sector exploitation, which was born from investigative journalism, reports Neill Barston.

The unusual collaboration with the flagship US media organisation was chosen by the chocolate business for the title’s commitment to uncovering major stories that connect, inform and enlighten, resulting in some special edition product ranges.

As the company, which last month played a key part of our World Confectionery Conference ,explained, the partnership includes a “Conversations Starter Bundle,” containing two chocolate bars—a milk caramel sea salt and a milk chocolate everything bar—wrapped in custom designs by The Post’s in-house creative team. The packaging combines The Post’s range of sections with Tony’s distinctly designed bar of unequal squares, highlighting the chocolate industry’s disparities.

More precisely, the limited-edition gift box contains Tony’s Milk Chocolate Caramel Sea Salt Bar in The Washington Post Collab ‘Food For Thought’ Wrapper, `and its extra crunchy Milk Everything Bar in The Washington Post Collab ‘Conversations Start Here’ Wrapper. There is also a Washington Post Sticker Sheet as part of its special release.

As the company put it, the package offers ‘A bar for you, one for a friend and a delicious reason to dive into the day’s headlines or talk about a hot topic. Grab a bundle, share a bite, start a conversation.”

Notably, as Confectionery Production has previous covered, the Tony’s business was in fact started by an investigative journalist, Teun Van de Keuken, who had exposed the ongoing situation of child labour in cocoa supply chains with a series of TV documentaries. When his efforts to publicly prompt change within major manufacturers did not appear to be working, he turned instead into recruiting a team of supporters to help make chocolate themselves, with its core aim of highlighting conditions within the sector.