Yorkie's 'it's not for girls' chocolate bar ads would not be allowed today because of 'wokey correctness'

Published: 09:22, 21 June 2026 | Updated: 09:28, 21 June 2026 Yorkie's 'it's not for girls' chocolate bar adverts would 'absolutely not' be allowed today, the marketing guru behind the campaign has said. Andrew Harrison, former marketing director at Nestlé, said a 'world before social media or gender politics' leant itself to amusing adverts - including the idea of women being banned from eating the chocolate. Promotions for the bar included a television advert where one girl disguised herself as a man - donning a fake moustache and builders' clothes and memorising the offside rule - so that she could buy it. In another poster, young men were urged to improve their driving skills rather than 'feed the birds'. Mr Harrison told the Telegraph: 'Could it happen now? Absolutely not. We've moved in a generation from blokey humour to wokey correctness. 'We assumed in those days everyone had a sense of humour.' The 'not for girls' marketing campaign, which ran from 2002 to 2012, was credited with causing Yorkie sales to surge among both men and women. In 2006, Nestlé released a limited pink wrapper edition 'especially for girls' to satisfy demand. Yorkie's 'it's not for girls' chocolate bar adverts would 'absolutely not' be allowed today, the marketing director behind the campaign has said A Yorkie van with the 'it's not for girls' slogan and tagline is seen in 2007 Mr Harrison said that although writers and academics could not always understand 'excluding' half the target market, many women enjoyed the advertisements too. He claimed opposition to the promotion was ironic given it was also down to a number of senior women on the team, including at J.Walter Thompson, the advertising firm that was brought in for the project. Mr Harrison added the ads were designed to move on from the truly 'outdated and sexist' publicity of the 1990s featuring often sensualised, women-focussed promotions. These included a Cadbury advert featuring a woman enjoying a Flake in a steamy bath. The 'not for girls' campaign was intended to modernise the Yorkie brand with an update from the 1970s trucker ad, when it was owned by Rowntree, based in York. A chunkier, more solid bar was marketed at men in order to capitalise on what was seen as a neglected part of the market. Mr Harrison had said at the start of the campaign in 2002: 'This is a big step for Yorkie as the trucker has been an institution, but we felt that we needed to take a stand for the British bloke and reclaim some things in his life, starting with his chocolate. 'Most men these days feel as if the world is changing around them and it has become less and less politically correct to have anything that is only for males. Promotions for the bar included a television advert where one girl disguised herself as a man so she could buy it 'It used to be that men had some areas of their life that were just for them and that was OK. No one cared and most people recognised that men needed places to be, in a simple sense, men. 'Yorkie feels that this is an important element of men's happiness and is starting the reclaiming process of making a particular chocolate just for men.' The 'not for girls' campaign was officially abandoned by Nestlé around 2012 - with the slogan removed from packaging. For a brief period it switched to selling the bars as 'man fuel for man stuff' but has now abandoned all gender-focussed advertising. A spokesman previously said: 'We hope people know that this was an old marketing campaign and Yorkie is of course for everybody to enjoy. We haven’t used this slogan for a number of years and have no plans to re-use it in the future.' No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy.