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Cadbury was one of a select group of 24 brands to advertise on ITV's opening night in 1955.

It viewed the arrival of commercial TV as a great opportunity to promote its chocolates.

Products such as Dairy Milk, launched in 1905, Milk Tray (1915), Flake (1920) and Roses (1938) have all appeared on the small screen.

The Flake girl debuted on ITV in 1959 in an ad designed to show that the chocolate bar's crumbly nature made it an indulgence that couldn't be shared. The concept was so successful that it lasted for 45 increasingly suggestive years.

Another long-running creation was the stuntman who took whatever risks were necessary to deliver a box of Milk Tray to the object of his affections.

The campaign ran from 1967-2000 and proved so popular that when it finally ended, the press bemoaned the death of romance.

But Cadbury's TV ads have done more than generate column inches. For example, the 'How do you eat yours?' campaign for Creme Egg boosted sales from £20m in 1986 to £60m a decade later, despite a rise in competition.

The company's decision to tweak its work for Caramel in 1988 also paid dividends. The introduction of a curvaceous, animated female bunny who tempts Mr Beaver with the chocolate bar helped to treble value sales by 1993.

Cadbury's dedication to the channel peaked in 1996 with the UK's biggest ever TV sponsorship deal, when it became the first brand to tie up with ITV's flagship soap, Coronation Street.

The partnership was initially agreed for two years, but it proved so successful that it continues to promote the parent brand and its products to an audience of over 10m.

The deal has paid off for Cadbury, which shows up in consumer research as the most successful broadcast sponsor in terms of brand awareness. The Coronation Street link attracted a 35% spontaneous recall in one 2004 study, the same year it picked up silver at the IPA Effectiveness Awards.

'Our sponsorship credits have been recognised as some of the best-loved and most successful in TV history,' says Louise Cooke, marketing director at Cadbury Trebor Bassett.