Kraft and Cadbury need to think about the loyalty of future consumers as well as existing ones

IT SEEMS that food still trumps everything. The past few months have seen a parade of proposed corporate marriages in all sorts of gee-whiz industries, from entertainment (Disney and Marvel) to information technology (Xerox and ACS). But none of these has attracted as much attention as a possible tie-up between America’s biggest food conglomerate, Kraft, and Britain’s best-loved chocolate-maker, Cadbury.

There are lots of reasons for this interest. The mating dance has been unusually long and the deal is unusually large. Kraft first proposed a purchase at a price of GBP10.2 billion ($16.7 billion) in early September and it now has until November 9th to make a formal offer or give up the fight. The courtship has unleashed a barrage of bad puns (“Cadbury gags on Kraft bid”). It has also stirred up atavistic fears across Britain of a faceless American conglomerate wrecking a great British institution and forcing Britons to give up Dairy Milk chocolate and Creme Eggs in favour of Cheez Whiz and Jell-O. …