Thorntons set a world first with their Easter billboard, only to watch it swiftly devoured

Lots of people in the marketing world are getting excited about interactive ads. But Thorntons have come up with a concept that makes the idea of talking to a poster through your mobile phone seem far from exciting – an edible billboard!

To mark the chocolatier’s Easter celebrations, a 14.5 feet x 9.5 feet lump of chocolatey goodness was put up in London’s Covent Garden. The billboard consisted of, wait for it, 134,982 square cm/53,143 square inches of Thorntons chocolate, 128 panels of chocolate (2kg each), two hand-crafted giant chocolate Easter eggs (0.75kg each) and ten hand-crafted giant chocolate bunnies (1.8kg each). If the Diary’s app-alling maths is correct, that’s a total of 275.5kg, aka a lot, of chocolate.

But don’t be tempted, as the Diary almost was, to scurry down there. The billboard lasted a full five hours before all that was left was an empty space, a few crumbs and probably some very messy-faced people with tummy ache.

Apparently the edible advert was a world first. More of it, please, Thorntons! Other chocolate manufactures please take note also.