How "Tony's Chocolonely" Is Ending Exploitative Labor Within the Chocolate Industry 

By Jadelyn Law

Tony’s Chocolonely has seen rising success within the last few years, including partnerships with major brands such as Ben and Jerry’s and Waitrose & Partners (a British supermarket). These partnerships included the creation of two new Tony’s Chocolonely bars with Ben and Jerry’s branding and a new Ben and Jerry’s ice cream flavor with Tony’s Chocolonely branding. They would later go on to partner with The Washington Post and create a chocolate bar box that came with conversation starter cards. These products can all be found on the Tony’s Chocolonely website.

One of their most notable advertisement strategies is their candy bar itself, which has been divided into tiny fractions, the center of which contains their logo. This design represents the inequality between cocoa farmers and the chocolate market. This chocolate bar is not the only product of its kind, though. Their advent calendar does not take the current situation lightly either. In the 12th door, there is no chocolate as there had been in previous versions. They later explained that the absence is intended to represent the inequality and insufficient earnings of cocoa farmers. Tony’s Chocolonely thrives off of their recognizable, bright-red branding, their catchy name, but most of all off their continuous advocacy for cocoa farmers.

Today, Tony’s Chocolonely makes around 162 million dollars a year and has been popping up in stores internationally. They have fulfilled their moral mission and have stayed true to their promises.

Works Cited

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Siegel, Rachel. Whoriskey, Peter. “Cocoa’s child laborers.” The Washington Post. Last modified June 5, 2019. Accessed March 2, 2025. https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/business/hershey-nestle-mars-chocolate-child-labor-west-africa/

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“Tony’s (Un)FAIR Countdown Calendar.” Last modified November 26, 2023. Accessed March 2, 2025. https://us.tonyschocolonely.com/blogs/serious-stuff/tonys-unfair-countdown-calendar