The internet is the rudest, meanest and cruelest playground in the world, where the victims of trolling are left alone to suffer: Severe Depression, Long-term Psychological Disorders, Lowered Self-esteem, Sleep and Eating Disorders, Lowered Academic scores, Self-harm and worse still.

Our client, Karim Bourgi, a Master Chocolatier and famous influencer Chef, is no stranger to trolls or reading their hateful, jealous comments/abuse. He asked us to make the internet a better, happier, kinder and well ‘sweeter’ place for him and, if possible, thousands of other victims.

The challenge was and still is, quite frankly, daunting. Could we teach the internet some manners? Could we ever so politely remind trolls that their words cut far more profoundly than any knife ever could? Our client’s problem wasn’t so much a business problem per se, but rather a business opportunity and personal aspiration. Karim Bourgi had close to half a million followers before our campaign aired (he now has many more), and while he has many thousands of fans, he’s also felt the effects of being trolled first-hand. Our challenge was to find a way to try and silence the negative, meaningless hate that gets posted across his social feeds.

We researched the problem extensively, which wasn’t hard, as there’s a world of data available. But there’s really very little hard data, facts or even any good ideas, for that matter, on how to solve the issues trolls create. So we set out to design utterly irresistible chocolate – apologies. We used 3 most popular social media platforms as visual inspiration, Using social listening we decided to take some of the hate messages, vitriolic comments, inappropriate and rude use of emojis of trollers and cyberbullies to form the basis of three beautifully designed chocolate bars. We tried to show how the words can affect the victims of online abuse. Each design needed to stand alone but equally form part of a ‘perfect’ set.
We created Chocapologies using Crystal Clear Rigid PVC and Food Grade specialized thermoform plastic moulds. The idea pushed the limits of food mould-making to a level of precision and detail that even the best food mould-makers in the world said wasn’t going to be possible. Thankfully though, it was, and our client, Karim Bourgi, Master Chocolatier and famous influencer Chef, who’d asked us to make the Internet a better, well ‘sweeter’ place, finally got to have the last word with his trolls. We then sent our Chocapologies to hundreds of online abuse victims, and they all posted/shared it for free. We didn’t have to pay one influencer/celebrity.