Why did we think the Milk Tray man was romantic?

[Popquorn]

Basically he worshipped from afar (stalked?), then broke into people’s homes dressed all in black to leave them a box of chocs, and this was seen by most people, including younger me, as endearing and romantic.

Was it the world before #MeToo and entirely acceptable, or am I simply mis remembering how creepy he actually was?

I’d be happy with a multipack of Freddos tbh

Again, imposing 2025 thinking on to a 1970s situation.

At that time, Milk Tray were really nice, and were a real treat.

Woah. This from someone who married Rupert Campbell-Black, notorious creepster, horse-bashed, cradle-snatcher and maybe rapist??

Nowadays it would be the Milk Tray woman doing a long distance swim from her remote island home to the mainland to buy a box before swimming back to enjoy some quality 'me time' without having to rely on some man to organise it all for her.

Such is the spirit of the times.

I used to think he was a super ninja type person and wonder why he was leaving chocolates

Water, me time and chocolate has already been done.

Cadburys Flake

I find it equally offensive and ridiculous that I have never seen a rabbit eat a Cadburys caramel bar, let alone share. They don't even talk to me, just look and run off.

When I was 13/14 someone pushed a box of said chocs through the letterbox. I was nonplussed. This took effort - I lived on a rural farm.
Found out as I left school it was the boy in my year I sat next to, from another farm.
He didn't say for three / four years.

Just had a vision of my Tesco delivery man sailing through the open window (with bilowing curtains obviously) and silently popping a can of beans on the table before disappearing into the night....

I think even at the time it was a bit tongue in cheek

I always thought Santa Claus was creepy and as a child I used to sing "He knows when you are sleeping" in a slow, horror film style.

And all because the Lady loves baked beans.

I remember these ads from the 1970s when I was a teenager. I certainly didn’t question the morality but, even then, I thought that I would have been disappointed that someone would go to such trouble for such a boring box of chocolates.

Of course we didn’t have access to the same range of chocolates as we do now, but Black Magic, which I thought of as the height of sophistication, would have been an improvement on Milk Tray!

Yep. Or talk to him!

I'm starting to wonder if people in the 70s and 80s were just more able to separate fact from fiction I think this is the answer.

I was thinking similar about how they would sell it today. Then I thought well it won't be long before adverts for UPF like chocolate will be banned.

Well the humour has certainly been stripped from all advertising. Back then the adverts were like little sketches - some funny, some moving

now they are pretty much all the same

except for the KFC as. Wtf is that?

Have you seen the music video for the Michael Buble cover of this song? Definite horror vibes.

It was written by Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly and originally intended for Roy Orbison, but Cindi released her version first, for the reasons you describe. It’s the better version IMO.

True. In the future they'll be talking about how awful it was when Milk Tray was actually advertised on TV! Most people will pass by any remaining boxes on the shelves, safely tucked away behind a counter, with their large print warnings on them with a shudder.

At least you knew what product was being advertised
It didn't have 1 word repeated over and over until you want to smash the screen in
It didn't have enough flashing imagines to induce a seizure
It didn't gaslight you into thinking it wasn't something it was (remember the "it's not milk ad....when it clearly was?)
You didn't have to think too deeply about it

So all in all it was 99.9% better than today's ads.

A ninja who leaves you meh chocolate? Not for me.

Oh for goodness sake, lighten up!

This is the only acceptable, non-creepy scenario. But otherwise, it’s stalker behaviour. We thought it was romantic because we were conditioned to think it was. Know better, do better, etc.

It’s no different to the Levi’s ad where he takes his jeans off in the laundromat and everyone is eyeing him up. These days we’d be shouting “put your keks back on you dirty perv” ! Ads were very different back then, probably a lot more fun too 😆