Snickers
- This entry is about the confectionery named Snickers. For other uses, see Snickers (disambiguation).
Snickers is a candy bar made by Mars, Incorporated. It is made from nougat topped with peanuts and caramel covered with milk chocolate. Snickers is the best selling candy bar of all time and has annual global sales of $2 billion.
The original Snickers bar was sold as Marathon in the UK and Ireland until 1990. More recently, the name Snickers Marathon has been associated with energy bar variants of the standard Snickers sold in some markets.
History
In 1930, the Mars family introduced its second brand, Snickers, named after one of their favorite horses. They were first sold for a nickel. It is made by forming a nougat center into large slabs, which are cut to size once the caramel and peanuts have been added. After the centers are formed, they are coated with thick milk chocolate. The completed bars are inspected, wrapped, and packed in cases for shipment. From 1949 to 1952, Snickers was a sponsor of "The Howdy Doody Show". The "Fun Size" bar was introduced in 1968 and has been a popular Halloween treat ever since. The following decades saw even more Snickers varieties introduced.
Snickers bars were particularly popular among movie-goers during the 1970s and early 1980s, outselling some of its important competitors at movie theaters. The Snickers brand is also available at many supermarkets, pharmacies and stores worldwide.
In 1995, Snickers launched a website to support its sponsorship of Euro '96, a pan-European soccer tournament. The website was groundbreaking in soliciting match previews and reviews from its visitors, who generated some 4,000 match reports, and the website won various international design, advertising and online community awards.
In the early 2000s, deep fried candy bars (including Snickers, and Mars bars) became quite popular at U.S. state fairs and at pubs around the U.K. and Australia, although they had been a local speciality in some North of England and Scottish fish and chip shops since at least the mid-1990s.
In 2006, the UK Food Commission highlighted celebrity chef Antony Worrall Thompson's "Snickers pie", which contained five Snickers bars among other ingredients, suggesting it was one of the unhealthiest desserts ever; one slice providing "over 1,250 calories from sugar and fat alone", more than half a day's requirement for an average adult. The Pie had featured on his BBC Saturday program some two years earlier and the chef described it as an occasional treat only. [1]
Renaming of original "Marathon" in UK and Ireland
In the United Kingdom and Ireland, Snickers bars were originally sold under the name "Marathon". In 1990, Mars standardized many of its global brand names, and the name was changed to Snickers.
M&M Mars used an aggressive advertisement campaign with memorable portrayals of irate foreign visitors attempting to order "Snickers" from confused shopkeepers. For eighteen months thereafter, both names were retained on the wrapper[1] – first with 'Marathon' in larger letters, then with 'Snickers' in larger letters. This caused a certain amount of derision, as the unfamiliar 'Snickers' was, to British ears, meaningless, and sounded very much like 'knickers'.
The change of name attained some prominence in British popular culture. As of 2006, it still occasionally appears as the subject or punchline of comedy routines.
The 2004 launch of the distinct Snickers Marathon energy bar caused some confusion.[2].
Snickers variations
- 1970 Snickers Munch
- 1989 Snickers Ice Cream bar
- 1996 Snickers Ice Cream Cone
- 2001 Snickers Cruncher bar (rebranded Snickers Munch in some markets, still sold as "Cruncher" in the UK and the Netherlands)
- 2002 Snickers Almond bar (Known as Mars Almond in other countries for many years. See the United States section of Mars bar)
- 2004 Snickers Marathon energy bars (see below)
Others include:
- Peanut Butter Snickers
- Snickers Gold
- Snickers Crazy Peanuts (limited edition, seen in Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia)
- Snickers Hard (limited edition, seen in Slovakia)
- Snickers P'opables
- Snickers Hazelnut (Australia)
- Snickers miniatures in Celebrations
Snickers Marathon energy bars
The "Snickers Marathon" energy bars are sold as an alternative to Powerbars, Clif and similar rivals. The range includes:-
- Energy bar
- Energy bar fortified for women
- Protein performance bar
- Low-carb lifestyle bar
They are available on both the U.S. and U.K. markets.
Snickers Marathon is not to be confused with "Marathon", the former name for Snickers in the UK and Ireland.
Australian Recall
In July of 2005, tens of thousands of Snickers and Mars Bars were pulled off the shelves in Australia due to a series of threatening letters which resulted in fears the candy bars had been poisoned. Mars received three letters from an unidentified individual indicating that he planned to distribute poisoned candy bars to store shelves. The last letter he sent included a Snickers bar contaminated with a substance which was not identified. The letters claimed that there were seven additional candy bars which had been tampered with which were for sale to the public. As a precautionary measure, Mars issued the massive recall. Mars said that there was never any demand for money, only complaints directed to an unidentified third party. Police never discovered any evidence of tampering in any of the bars that were recalled.[2]
References
- ^ The Marathon candy bar, Christian Science Monitor, Home forum 1999-03-18
- ^ Snickers Marathon?? Screwing with my brain and the past, techno.blog("Dion") 2004-02-23