Opinion: Perspective - Kit Kat's slogan seems like change for the sake of it.(Nestle Rowntree)

Quite how much responsibility Nestle Rowntree's managing director, Chris White, will take for the decision to drop the iconic 'Have a break, have a Kit Kat' slogan could well depend on how successful the change proves to be.

But it's impossible to consider the overhaul outside the context of White's comments earlier this year. I doubt that anyone who works on Nestle business will need reminding. But, for the record, White lambasted Nestle's advertising with all the subtlety and media sensitivity of an FA press officer. 'I don't like any of the ads,' he told Campaign. 'They are focused on awards and not on selling more product to more people at higher prices.'

The notion that Kit Kat ads are carefully conceived with a trip up the red carpet to the awards podium in mind is a nonsense to anyone with a creative sensibility. But Kit Kat's ads didn't prevent a 9 per cent drop in sales of the brand last year; White's ham-fistedness was a distraction from the underlying fact that in 2003 Kit Kat lost its status as the country's favourite confectionery brand to Dairy Milk That a staggering 47 Kit Kats are still eaten every minute is testament to the familiarity, availability and the reliable moreishness of the product as much as the communications strategy.

But for any ad slogan to endure for almost half a century is a triumph against fashion, against egos and against the inevitable desire for a new marketing or creative chief to mark their arrival with dramatic change (see page 18). And, of course, it reflects a genuine respect for the simplicity and brilliance of the copywriter's art.

Perhaps the Kit Kat line has become wallpaper, a comfortably familiar backdrop for each new advertising execution rather than an arresting, brand-defining ...