The World Wars have been key in changing the food industry. The food rationing, especially the rations placed on sugar in particular in 1942, created the opportunity for a new market in the 1950s where Europe began to recover from the wars with the financial support of America. The special relationship between the United Kingdom and the United States allowed the country to share in growing consumer boom with the television becoming more popular and becoming a standard opposed to a luxury....

The World Wars have been key in changing the food industry. The food rationing, especially the rations placed on sugar in particular in 1942, created the opportunity for a new market in the 1950s where Europe began to recover from the wars with the financial support of America. The special relationship between the United Kingdom and the United States allowed the country to share in growing consumer boom with the television becoming more popular and becoming a standard opposed to a luxury.
This allowed advertising to be able to capitalise on a new medium and reach the masses easier. Prior to 1958, the Quality Street sweets used adverts in form of posters but the 1950s instead saw more companies using TV advertising to grow their businesses and this tactic worked well with Quality Street. The sweets began being produced in 1936, created by Mackintosh, who owned a sweet shop. This followed a trend where chocolate was becoming more available to all of the popular rather than the upper classes with toffees usually being the treat of the working class. This made chocolate and sweets more accessible, especially during a time of economic depression. This is something they tried to capitalise on in their adverts.
For example, with the first few adverts in this collection, they emphasis the role of the family. The advert produced in 1959, the advert shows a father returning to his family. The mother is depicted to be a typical housewife, wearing an apron. The family shown after this also has a woman returning with Quality Street, possibly from work but could be from shopping with this being one of the responsibilities of the 1950s British housewife. This emphasis on Quality Street being a treat for the family (especially that of a nuclear family) and the woman’s role in the house. However, the later adverts such as those created in 1965 include a variety of different people with a couple sailing and a group of women working in an office. This shows how these TV adverts were responding to public demand and norms. These actors were used to try and relate to the people in order to increase sales.
And this was successful. The use of TV adverts, the end to rationing and the consumer culture overall helped brands such as Quality Street to grow as well as other brands such as Toblerone and Cadbury. Over the years, Quality Street continued to use television ads and in the ‘90s, began to be produced by Nestle. Quality Street continues to be sold today with new products being produced such as Matchmakers and are now a regular treat shared among families.

References:
Christopher Klein, Chocolate’s Sweet History: From Elite Food to Food for the Masses (2021), <https://www.history.com/news/the-sweet-history-of-chocolate>.
Stephen Wilson, Rationing in World War Two, <https://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/Rationing-in-World-War-Two/>.