Maltesers turns 90 with a musical journey through women’s shared history

Maltesers is celebrating its 90th birthday with a campaign that moves through time, music and everyday moments to show how women have always found comfort in one another, often through humour, and in the face of small, familiar frustrations.

Created by AMV BBDO and directed by Ally Pankiw through Partizan, the film unfolds as a historical scroll, beginning in earlier centuries and travelling steadily towards the present day. The visuals shifts steadily as the timeline advances. Corsets give way to softer silhouettes, interiors open up, workplaces modernise, and social expectations loosen, yet the experiences at the heart of each scene remain recognisable.

Running through the entire film is a choral version of Put On A Happy Face, sung by a group of women who guide the viewer through the story. The song sets the rhythm of the whole film, shaping how the scenes move from one era to the next, and giving the film a sense of theatricality that feels very up-beat and playful. There is a light, romanticised quality to the styling, echoing the popular period-drama aesthetic seen in shows like Bridgerton, while the humour stays firmly grounded in real life.

As the film progresses, women are shown encountering moments that feel instantly familiar. Restrictive clothing in earlier periods mirrors impractical fashion in more modern settings. Social constraints are replaced by workplace irritations, such as freezing office air-conditioning. The details change, but the emotional response does not. In each moment, you can see women sharing looks, smiles and quiet laughs which signal mutual understanding. These small exchanges become the thread that connects the entire film.

Maltesers appears naturally within these scenes, woven into conversations and pauses. This is quite cool because it isn’t exactly presented as a focal point, which makes it very less promotional. The chocolate acts as a companion to the moment which also reinforces the idea of ‘lightness’ without interrupting the narrative.

What stands out most is how the campaign treats humour. There are no obvious punchlines or exaggerated reactions. The comedy comes from recognition, from seeing situations that feel lived-in. The film trusts the audience to find the humour themselves, allowing the moments to breathe and unfold at a measured pace.

Now this is my favourite part! Women are portrayed as observant, supportive and socially connected. There is no single protagonist and no dramatic arc. Instead, the story belongs to the collective, it belongs to all of the women who are featured. Women of different ages and from different periods and background appear briefly, then move on, replaced by others who share similar experiences in new settings. The focus remains on how women navigate everyday life together, exchanging understanding rather than solutions.

This approach sits comfortably within Maltesers’ long-established Look On The Light Side platform. Since the brand’s creation in 1936, Maltesers has consistently aligned itself with lightness, both in product and personality. Over the decades, its advertising has returned again and again to everyday situations, often centred around conversation, observation and humour found in ordinary moments.

The 90th anniversary campaign continues the tradition of ‘don’t take life too seriously’, even when the tides are against you, just have fun! By stretching the idea across history, the brand shows how the same insight can hold its shape across changing cultural contexts. The campaign feels confident in its pacing, its tone and its restraint, allowing the idea to land without explanation or justification.

Backed by a £10m investment and rolled out across TV, cinema, out-of-home and social, the campaign’s strength lies in detail, timing and a clear understanding of how humour can create connection.

Within the wider chocolate category, Maltesers continues to occupy a distinct creative space. While brands like Cadbury often lean into emotional storytelling and Galaxy focuses on indulgent escape, Maltesers consistently returns to social observation. This campaign reinforces that positioning, showing how humour can be warm, inclusive and culturally aware without becoming heavy-handed.

As an anniversary piece, the film uses the past as a lens through which to view the present, reminding audiences that while the world changes, shared experience remains!

Ninety years on, Maltesers is still finding new ways to look on the light side, and still understands that the smallest moments are often the most powerful.