Ferrero Rocher

Ferrero Rocher are spherical chocolate sweets made by Ferrero SpA.The sweets consist of a whole roasted hazelnut encased in a thin wafer shell filled with nutella/hazelnut cream and covered in milk chocolate and chopped hazelnuts. The sweets contain approximately 304 kJ of energy, and are individually packaged inside a gold-coloured wrapper.

In Canada, Brazil, Hong Kong and MalaysiaFact|date=October 2008, Ferrero Rocher is a popular gift during the holidays, especially during Chinese New Year. Chinese culture associates the gold of the packaging with good fortune and wealth.Fact|date=January 2007

Advertising

In the UK, the product is perhaps more famous for its original TV advertisements than for its taste. It was promoted to a down-market audience as an aspirational brand by means of an Italian advertisement dubbed in English showing an ambassador's butler offering a huge piled plate of the sweets to the guests at an embassy party. Presented conventionally, this advertisement might have had no extraordinary impact - but the English-language soundtrack of the British version had a kitsch style which made the product an icon of "false aspirational" products almost immediately. The opening voice-over, "The Ambassador's receptions are noted in society for their host's exquisite taste that captivates his guests", together with the comments of "Eccellente" and "Monsieur, with these Rocher, you're really spoiling us" from guests at the reception, remain widely recognised in the UK. Further signs of the impact of this advert are that it has been parodied by a number of comedians, and that the concept of a butler wandering around holding a silver tray with a mountain of Ferrero Rocher has become a trope, and a popular stereotype of diplomacy in general.

Outside the UK the product has achieved considerable popularity without the same cultural references and associations. It is widely distributed in North American supermarkets based rather more on its merits as a pleasurable candy and less on any influences attributable to advertising.

Royal Copenhagen, Brisbane makes an ice-cream version of the chocolate also called "Ferrero Rocher".

References to the television advertisement

*"The ambassador is really spoiling us with this one!" [cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/collective/A1284095|title=The Meters: Rejuvenation|publisher=bbc.co.uk|date=2003-09-15|accessdate=2006-07-08]
*"The assembled press could only have thought: 'Ambassador, with these cack-handed spy antics, you are really spoiling us'." [cite news|url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,,1696463,00.html|publisher=The Guardian|first=Nick Paton|last=Walsh|title=Rock of agents|date=2006-01-27|accessdate=2006-07-08]
*"Like the fabled Ferrero Rocher ambassador, Nintendo is really spoiling us this year." [cite web|url=http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/games/archives/2006/05/09/the_pree3_roundup_part_one.html|title=The pre-E3 round-up: part one|publisher=Guardian Unlimited|first=Keith|last=Stuart|date=2006-05-09|accessdate=2006-07-08]
*In Channel 4 comedy Father Ted, when a group of three bishops visited, Mrs. Doyle stacked the Ferrero Rocher in a cone shape and the bishops proclaimed, "Father Ted, with these Rocher you are really spoiling us."
*In Goodnight Sweetheart Series 4, Episode 4, Gary (played by Nicholas Lyndhurst) hands a vicar a box of Ferrero Rocher as the vicar asks "are these from your embassy contacts?". Gary responds by saying "Absolutely, yes. The Ambassador has them at all his receptions".

In some branding studies in Italy it was remarked upon that the golden packaging was chosen in order to give an "elite" status to this kind of chocolate.In one spot in the late 1990s, Richard Gere was a testimonial for the brand.Fact|date=August 2007

In an episode of Little Britain Abroad, Bubbles DeVere is seen eating a Ferrero Rocher in her husband's mansion.

In a parody of in their show, French and Saunders, a secondary character took out a tray of Fererro Rocher when the word "Ambassador" was said by either Dawn French or Jennifer Saunders.

In the released DVD of his stand up show 'Sonic Waffle', comedian Ross Noble remarks "Oh Ambassador, with these Rochelles you are spoiling us," when talking to a heckler.

Notes and references

*William Cook. [http://www.newstatesman.com/200002140044 Eurochoc] . "New Statesman". 14 February 2000.