Great Crunchie Train Robbery – Cadbury Crunchie (1975, New Zealand)
Run time 1 minute 33 seconds, directed by Tony Williams, music by Murray Grindlay
Overall rating: 13/15 (★★★★⅓)
Sweet as or not? – Sweet as (no pun intended).
Verdict: Western-influenced commercial urges you to ‘join the gold rush’, with explosions and more.
Reviewed by Virginia Blake • June 20th, 2020 (June 21st, 2020 NZT)
Kia ora everyone. Today, in this inaugural edition of Sweet As? – Pint Sized, we shall be taking a look at a classic New Zealand commercial. In this edition of Sweet As? – Pint Sized, we shall be exploring the Great Crunchie Train Robbery advertisement for the Cadbury chocolate of the same name from forty-five or so years ago, back in 1975.
Now, for the obligatory disclaimer. If you are not interested in this type of fare, or if you do not want to read a review about classic New Zealand commercials, please click away to another part of Sweet As?, our sister site Buzz Network and its associated archive, or go to another corner of the blogosphere altogether.
Anyway, if you are interested, please feel free to continue reading from this point onwards.
This advertisement starts off in a fairly underwhelming manner, for it begins in an unassuming train carriage being pulled by a locomotive speeding off into the sunset, as is standard practice in most, if not all Westerns – it is undoubtedly inspired by classic Westerns and NZ On Screen makes reference to the usage of old Western footage in this commercial.
“A connection with Martin Scorsese’s editor allowed access to footage from old Westerns…”
Anyway, this is not the case for long as the normal actions of playing cards, for example, quickly transition to pulling out a gun and opening a chest of Crunchie bars, one of which is stuffed into the mouth of someone who seems to be the train’s conductor at gunpoint, coincidentally synchronised perfectly with Murray Grindlay’s soundtrack.
If you were wondering, a golden gun does feature in this commercial and it is made entirely of Crunchie bars, which makes it far easier to advertise the chocolate bar alongside the jingle persuading consumers to ‘have a Crunchie, hokey pokey bar’, tailoring the product for the New Zealand audience.
Tony Williams directs this commercial well, even employing the use of pyrotechnics later in the commercial, which is clearly influenced by Westerns. This influence is reinforced in the slogan ‘join the gold rush’, which may be a reference to the chocolate’s golden wrapping.
Overall, this commercial is sweet as (no pun intended), although the jingle can become repetitive at times as the main message of ‘have a Crunchie, hokey pokey bar’ is repeated throughout the soundtrack, but this is probably for the best.
The Addendum
Ratings: Music – 4/5, How well product is advertised – 5/5, Directing – 4/5
Overall rating: 13/15 (4 stars and a third of a star)
How can I view this commercial?
This commercial is available on the NZ On Screen website (nzonscreen.com (external link opens in new window)), along with other commercials and audiovisual content.
Another version of this commercial is available with the slogan “The Great Cadbury Crunchie Train Robbery” on the Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision website (ngataonga.org.nz (external link opens in new window)).
Sweet As? 