Galaxy Chocolate Wants to Help Women-Owned Businesses 'Thrive'

Through the Dove Galaxy chocolate brand, Mars Wrigley has made a commitment to help 1 million people—specifically women, their families and communities—"thrive" by 2030.

The work, fetchingly tagged "Your Pleasure Has Promise," from AMV BBDO, includes partnerships with NGOs such as CARE International.

This promo was directed by Kenyan filmmaker Amirah Tajdin, known for championing women of color:

The initiative earmarks some profits from the sales of Galaxy chocolate to fund programs like the Women for Change Village Savings & Loans Associations (VSLA). Set up by Mars and CARE, these help empower women in cocoa-growing communities. 

The use of chocolate as the vehicle for funding such change is poetic. Chocolate's discovery and export was instrumental in fueling the first major transatlantic slave trade. That's grim history, and something Mars is especially sensitive to.

But it's a shame that the campaign fails to provide clear details of how it incorporates its goals into larger systems, beyond the promise of a few financial infusions. How are Galaxy's 1 million "helped" people being counted? (Notably, they're not helping 1 million female entrepreneurs; they're helping 1 million people, which includes women, their families and communities. That means helping one local woman might count, to Dove Galaxy, as helping 5,000 people, depending on a community's size.)

What percentage of profits is used to fund these programs? And are communities given long-term stability and resources to ensure they can "thrive" on their own, once such assistance ends? 

A system that exclusively prioritizes growth is by nature extractive. In the midst of climate crisis, brands and governments are vowing to improve carbon emissions, reduce footprints or meet other goals by a certain date, usually more than 5 years into the future.

We've seen how such vague targets can quickly become forgotten or deprioritized, because they aren't accompanied by meaningful structural shifts. The ultimate changes usually revolve around donations, structuring non-profit arms or buying carbon credits. None of these models are sustainable.

But this isn't Dove's fault specifically. It's a challenge every business, government and citizen appears to be grappling with, and without cohesion.

"At Dove Galaxy, we're committed to creating a world where our chocolate does as good as it tastes,” says Tiana Conley, who leads global portfolio strategy at Mars Wrigley. "It's what our consumers expect of us, and what we demand of ourselves. Which is why I'm so proud of our ambitious new pledge to help one million people thrive by 2030. A commitment, driven by our belief at Mars that brands should be a force for good, which we hope will create a lasting legacy."

The campaign breaks in Britain and China before meeting broader audiences.