Demand for chocolate is at an all-time high. However, producing chocolate comes with some sticky social, environmental and economic problems. This paper focuses on the issues of child labour, forced child labour and unsustainable farming practice within the chocolate industry, and specifically on the discourse about Nestlé’s Ivory Coast cocoa supply chain. We analyse corporate disclosures, related counter accounts and subsequent responses in new and old media as a dynamic communication process. A mobilising of Goffman's (1959) dramaturgical metaphor of impression management contextualises each communication as a performance towards an audience. Behind the communications is Nestlé’s need to repair its legitimacy – because child labour and unsustainable farming exist in its cocoa supply chain – and the audience’s vested interests in their counter-performances. The Nestlé case offers substantive and nuanced insights into corporate disclosure and communication practices, how the Internet is changing the more unidirectional performances of the past, and how appreciation of counter accounts and subsequent responses to counter accounts contributes to theoretical understanding as well as provides insights into the plight of cocoa’s child labourers.

对巧克力的需求处于历史最高水平。然而，生产巧克力会带来一些棘手的社会、环境和经济问题。本文重点关注巧克力行业中的童工、强迫童工和不可持续的农业实践问题，特别是关于雀巢科特迪瓦可可供应链的讨论。我们将新旧媒体中的企业披露、相关柜台账户和后续反应分析为一个动态的传播过程。戈夫曼 (1959) 对印象管理的戏剧化隐喻的动员将每一次交流都置身于对观众的表演。沟通的背后是雀巢需要修复其合法性——因为其可可供应链中存在童工和不可持续的农业——以及观众在他们的反击中的既得利益。雀巢案例对公司披露和沟通实践、互联网如何改变过去更加单向的表现以及对反账户的鉴赏和对反账户的后续反应如何有助于理论理解以及提供洞察可可童工的困境。