 A Cadbury's Caramello Koala split in half | |
| Product type | Confectionery |
|---|---|
| Owner | Cadbury Australia |
| Country | Australia and United Kingdom |
| Introduced | 1966 |
| Markets | Australia and United Kingdom |
| Website | Cadbury’s Caramello Koala |
Caramello Koala is a brand of chocolate treat currently manufactured by Cadbury Australia. It consists of a chocolate cartoon koala (named "George" in certain advertising material) with a caramel centre.
The chocolate bar is sold in two sizes: the more common 15 g (0.53 oz) size and the "Giant" 35 g (1.2 oz) size, usually sold as a fundraiser. 50 million Caramello Koalas are sold in Australia each year, making the product the second most popular in the Australian children's confectionery market, after the Freddo Frog.[1]
Cross-over products are occasionally made available featuring the Caramello character, including Cadbury Caramello Koala Choc Caramel flavoured milk in 2003 and Caramello Koala Sundae ice-cream in 1997. They were also sold in South Africa under the name "Caramello Bear", where they were marketed with the Caramello Bear admitting: "Caramel? That's a weakness!", but they were discontinued in 2012. The Afrikaans slogan for the Caramello Bear in South Africa was "Met 'n magie propvol caramel", which translates to "with a tummy full of caramel".
A 20g Caramello Koala contains 415 KJ (99.1874 kcal) of energy and 5.5 g (0.19 oz) of fat.
Caramello Koala was introduced in Australia in 1966. It was reputedly the first mass-marketed confection to be modelled on Australian fauna. Television advertisements for the chocolate in Australia featured Caramello and his cartoon friends sailing down a river or riding on a steam train to a modified version of Donovan's "Mellow Yellow". Caramello's packaging and imagery was updated in 2000, after market research revealed the character was seen as daggy, one-dimensional and not sufficiently 'animated'.[1]
In 2003, then Australian Labor Party MP, Mark Latham, was labelled a "Caramello Koala" by Liberal MP Christopher Pyne, for allegedly being "soft in the centre".[2]
To deal with rising input costs, in April 2015 Cadbury announced a reduction in size of the 20 g (0.71 oz) chocolate to 15 g (0.53 oz). Despite the 25% size reduction, the price is unchanged.[3][4] The giant Caramello Koala has also been reduced from 40 g (1.4 oz) to 35 g (1.2 oz).
- ^ a b 'Caramello Koala gets new look', Packaging, 30 November 1999.
- ^ Ramsay, Alan (7 June 2003). "If Labor's nut has gone soft inside, try the blancmange". The Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Media. Archived from the original on 23 October 2012.
- ^ Collier, Karen (19 April 2015). "Caramello Koala to share same fate as shrinking Freddo". Herald Sun. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
- ^ Mitchell, Sue (20 April 2015). "Mondelez Australia profit soars after tax credit". The Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Media. Archived from the original on 3 May 2015.