If Charlie Bucket could win Willy Wonka’s entire chocolate factory for a good deed, why can’t we be awarded with at least a box of chocolates, right? Turns out we can! At The Anthon Berg Generous Store money is of no use, because all it takes to get some delicious chocolate is the promise of a good deed.
The pop-up chocolate store, located in the center of Copenhagen, opened its doors to the public last month. Inside, the boxes of candy are marked with unique price tags: ‘Don’t comment on your girlfriend’s driving for a week’, ‘Serve breakfast in bed to your loved one’ and ‘No talking behind your girlfriend’s back for a month’. The most popular of them all is ‘Help clean a friend’s house’. Hardly anyone touches the box that says ‘A week where you don’t lie to your father’.
Instead of cash registers, people have to pay at iPad stations. Logging into their Facebook accounts, they’ve got to post the promise of the good deed on the walls of both the giver and receiver of the deeds. This way, the peer pressure will ensure they ‘pay up’ on time. So far, almost everyone who purchased the candy has kept up their promise, even posting pictures as evidence on Anthon Berg’s Facebook Page.
Anthon Berg is a popular worldwide brand of chocolate that’s been around for over 125 years. The Generous Store Project is an initiative they’ve taken up in partnership with an advertising agency. Their aim is to “reconnect their brand with generosity and inspire people to see the positive effects of being generous.” “You can never be too generous,” the company declares, and they sure are living up to it by giving away all that chocolate. How I wish I could be in Denmark right now!