Anyone with a sweet tooth might do any number of things for a taste of chocolate. Looting protected archaeological sites probably should not be one of them.

That apparently was not so obvious to the British candy maker Cadbury.

The company recently marketed its Freddo Treasures chocolates with an advertising campaign that urged consumers to “grab your metal detector and go hunting for Roman riches” and other artifacts at specific sites around Britain and Ireland.

A website for the campaign suggested that adventurers “dig up Viking silver on the River Ribble,” “hunt for precious rings in Fermanagh” and “mine for Saxon gold in Chelmsford, Essex.”

“Are you willing to get your hands dirty to discover more?” the website asked, effectively comparing the act of opening a box of chocolates to searching for actual treasure and ancient relics. At certain sites, the ad campaign said, “the treasure’s fair game.”

Archaeologists and museum curators were quick to object.

Ian Trumble, a curator of archaeology, Egyptology and world cultures at Bolton Museum in northern England, wrote on Twitter over the weekend that the marketing effort was “quite possibly the most shocking, ill-advised & irresponsible ‘heritage engagement’ campaigns” he had ever seen. Cadbury’s pitch, he added, “actively promotes the gleeful destruction of archaeological sites and undermines years of public heritage education.”

In an interview on Monday, he expanded on his objections, saying that anyone engaging in a real-life game of Tomb Raider in many parts of the British Isles would be doing something “unquestionably illegal.” On Twitter, the Historic England government body echoed his stance, citing “strict rules that protect England’s archaeological heritage.”

Mondelez International, which owns Cadbury, said in a statement that it had not meant “to encourage anyone to break existing regulations regarding the discovery of new archaeological artifacts.” The company said it had taken down the website and was working on “directing families to museums where existing treasures can be found.”

The Advertising Standards Authority received 30 complaints about the ad, according to Matt Wilson, a spokesman for the regulatory body.

Tiffany Hsu is a breaking news reporter on the Business Desk. Before joining The Times in 2017 she covered economic news for The Los Angeles Times and earned an M.B.A. from Columbia University. @tiffkhsu

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