Exclusive: Ghana TV station My Cocoa Life changes name following Mondelez complaint

An innovative Ghana-based community television station, My Cocoa Life, has moved change its name following complaints from Mondelez International over similarities with the snacking giant’s sustainability programme, writes Neill Barston.

Confectionery Production has been shown correspondence on the issue, with the US-based business, which stated it wished to resolve the matter without pursing a legal case – which the station has told our publication it felt it had little choice in complying with, even though it believed its trading name was purely coincidental to the major corporation’s operations.

According to the station, formerly known as My Cocoa Life, changing its name to a new moniker of, My Cocoa Business, has caused both unexpected expense and considerable inconvenience for the weekly broadcasting outfit, linked to Heritage Christian University in Ghana. 

As Mondelez asserted in a letter to the TV station, it claimed its Cocoa Life project, which was rolled-out in 2012, and followed an original Cadbury Cocoa Partnership, was trademarked, and it believed that simply adding the word My did not make My Cocoa Life distinct from its own scheme.

Posting on social media in the wake of changing its name, the Ghana station stated: “Ghana’s only nationwide weekly Cocoa Educational and Informative Television Program called My Cocoa Life has changed its Name to My Cocoa Business. Since 2022, this media initiative has brought significant impact in the promotion of Ghana and global chocolate and the cocoa industry, through real cocoa stories, investigations and reportage.

“Our station was confronted by the Acting Country Director of Mondelez International’s Cocoa Life Program in Ghana,Jephta Mensah Oduro, who  claimed a letter was sent to Him from the head of Mondelez International that claims My Cocoa Life TV Programme is the Same as Cocoa Life Sustainable Programme.”

Speaking to Confectionery Production, the TV station believed that the coincidence of a similar name was purely accidental, and had argued that trademarking the word cocoa is not possible, and that its work as a community television station was entirely different from a corporate sustainability programme. 

Despite, this the station confirmed that it did not wish to be subject to legal challenges and has subsequently changed its name. It appealed to Mondelez for support with those costs, which the company allegedly rejected.

Confectionery Production has approached Mondelez for comment on the story, but at the time of writing, had not yet received a response.