Freddo Frog Fundraisers: Are Australian Children Being Used as Unpaid Sales Reps?

If you grew up in Australia, the sight of a purple Cadbury fundraising box packed with Freddo Frogs and Caramello Koalas likely stirs nostalgia. For decades, schools, sports clubs, and kindergartens have enlisted children and parents to sell these chocolates to fund uniforms, equipment, or school trips. It’s a tradition so woven into Aussie culture that few question it. But as a former seven-year-old awkwardly peddling Freddo’s at family BBQs, I’ve come to see this “community fundraising” for what it really is: a slick, exploitative marketing scheme by Cadbury that turns children into unpaid sales reps for a global conglomerate with a questionable ethical track record.

The Sweet Deal: How Cadbury’s Fundraising Works

Cadbury’s Fundraising Boxes Program has been a staple for over 25 years. Schools, sports clubs, and community groups order a minimum of 12 carry boxes at $40 each, containing assorted treats. They have a variety of boxes to choose from, chocolate bars, lollies, and the boxes I remember from the 2000’s are the carry boxes of chocolate frogs and koalas. The larger chocolates come in boxes of 60, where each unit is purchased at $0.66. The smaller chocolates come in boxes of 120 purchased at $0.33 per unit. If sold at the recommended retail price of $0.50 per unit, each box of 120 units yields a potential $20 profit. Sounds straightforward, right? Order the boxes, sell the chocolates, and pocket the difference for your cause.

But here’s the catch: to break even on that minimum order of 12 boxes (1,440 chocolates), you must first sell 960 chocolates. The “buy 20 boxes, get 1 free” promotion sweetens the deal but raises the stakes, committing groups to $800 for 2,520 chocolates, requiring 1,600 sales just to avoid a loss. Who’s doing the selling? Not professional salespeople or retailers with financial incentives, but children, parents, and teachers, pressured to tap their “warm markets” (family, friends, and neighbours) to move product. Cadbury, meanwhile, incurs zero costs for advertising, merchandisers, or retail shelf space. They’ve outsourced their sales force to Australian children, all under the guise of “supporting the community.”

The Bitter Truth: A Business Model Built on Children

Cadbury sells fundraising boxes at wholesale prices comparable to those charged to supermarkets, securing profits upfront while bearing no financial risk, regardless of whether groups meet their fundraising goals. By partnering with schools and community organisations, Cadbury taps into a vast market without incurring costs for distribution or advertising. Children become unwitting brand ambassadors, peddling Freddo Frogs to grandparents, uncles, and aunties, while parents feel pressured to sell at workplaces or social gatherings. Although the guidelines state, “Adults should be present at all times,” this oversight is often ignored in practice. As someone who wandered my neighbourhood selling these chocolates as a child, I can personally attest this message was not received, and many Australians who participated in the program would likely agree.

It’s a masterclass in exploiting trust and nostalgia. Cadbury’s website boasts, “At Cadbury, we’re passionate about supporting your local fundraising efforts,” offering “planning tips, essential tools, and our beloved products.” But this feel-good rhetoric masks a stark reality: Cadbury profits off free labour from communities, often children, while dodging traditional retail costs. Worse still, Cadbury’s parent company, Mondelez International, has faced scrutiny for sourcing cocoa from farms in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire linked to child labour. While Mondelez highlights its “Cocoa Life” sustainability program, reports from organisations like the International Labour Organisation and advocacy groups suggest persistent gaps in supply chain oversight. Read our previous post for more details.

So, while children sell Freddo’s to “support the community,” they’re unwittingly distributing products tied to alleged human rights violations. At my school, they dangled incentives to create sales leaderboards and prizes like toys for top sellers, mimicking corporate salesroom tactics. These rewards, while exciting for children, underscore the exploitation: children are gamified into working harder for Cadbury’s profit, not just their community’s benefit.

Sugar-Coated Harm: Health and Ethics Collide

Beyond exploitation, there’s the product itself. Cadbury’s chocolates are sugar-laden treats with zero nutritional value, nothing screams “supporting the community” like, cavities, obesity, and diabetes. In a country where childhood obesity rates are climbing (1 in 4 Australian children are overweight or obese), it’s ironic that sports clubs, schools and kindergartens, places meant to nurture health and growth, push these products as fundraising tools. Cadbury profits by flooding communities with addictive snacks, while children bear the social pressure of selling, and families bear the health consequences of consuming.

Time to Rethink Fundraising

It’s time for Australian schools, sports clubs, and kindergartens to scrutinise this tradition. Are you fundraising for your community, or are you turning children and parents into unpaid sales reps for a conglomerate that profits billions while offering questionable ethical practices and ultra-processed, addictive food? Cadbury rakes in revenue while communities scramble to sell 1,600 chocolates just to break even on a “free” box deal. The nostalgia of Freddo Frog fundraisers is seductive, but it’s built on a model that exploits trust, sidesteps ethical concerns, and promotes harmful products. Next time your school hands out a purple box, ask: who’s really profiting? It’s not the children, and it’s certainly not the community.