The archive · Design & Visual · Product decision · 2022
Le Chocolat des Français sells ginger chocolate via saucy censorship-safe packs
For Valentine's 2022 the French chocolatier's five packs used everyday objects as naughty innuendo — sexy enough to sell, clean enough to dodge censorship.
Le Chocolat des Français
What it had to solve
Le Chocolat des Français, a brand known for its creative, illustrated packaging, wanted a Valentine's Day 2022 launch that was colourful, fun and sexy. Ginger — considered an aphrodisiac — gave the product a reason to exist: a chocolate made for couples who have fallen into a routine.
How it works
Le Chocolat des Français is a chocolate brand known for its creative, illustrated packaging. For Valentine's Day 2022 it created chocolate using ginger, which is considered an aphrodisiac — a product aimed at couples who have fallen into a routine and need a nudge back to romance.
The brief was simple: create packaging and a campaign that is colourful, fun and sexy. So five packs were created, each with naughty visuals showing five different scenes of bored couples on the verge of reconnecting.
The clever part was how the naughtiness was drawn. To avoid censorship issues, the visuals used everyday objects that serve as innuendos when read with the line 'Spice up your Valentine's Day'. Each image stays printable on its own; the slogan is what turns a rolling pin or a pepper grinder into a joke.
The campaign let the brand sell an adult idea inside mainstream retail rules, and D&AD entered the work in its 2022 Awards, keeping it in the awards archive as a reference for packaging humour that flirts without crossing the line.
Why it lands
- Everyday objects read one way on their own and another way with the headline, so the joke is built to survive any censorship check.
- Five packs gave the idea range and repeatability: one product, several different scenes and punchlines.
- Ginger's aphrodisiac reputation anchored the saucy packaging in a genuine product truth rather than pure shock value.
- The pack itself is the medium, so the campaign could run in retail and outdoor without depending on a platform's tolerance for adult content.
What it did
The result was a Valentine's range whose naughtiness never had to be censored: each image is innocent at first glance and spicy once the headline unlocks the double meaning. D&AD entered the campaign in its 2022 Awards and keeps the work in its awards archive.
What you can take
When explicit imagery is not allowed, let the ban write the brief: encode the joke in everyday objects, let the headline unlock it, and the audience does half the work.
Since then
D&AD entered Spice up your Valentine's Day in its 2022 Awards and keeps the work in its awards archive. The campaign stands as an example of a small illustrated-packaging brand selling a risqué idea inside mainstream retail rules — the censorship constraint itself became the creative device.
Sources
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