Snickers

This entry is about the confectionery named Snickers. For other uses, see Snickers (disambiguation).

Snickers is a chocolate bar made by Mars, Incorporated. It consists of peanut butter nougat topped with roasted peanuts and caramel covered with milk chocolate.^[1] Snickers is the best selling candy bar of all time and has annual global sales of US$2 billion. ^[2] The original Snickers was formerly sold as Marathon in the UK and Ireland.^[3] More recently, Snickers Marathon branded nutrition bars have been sold in some markets.^[4]

Contents 1 History 1.1 Renaming in UK and Ireland 2 Variations 2.1 Snickers Marathon energy bars 2.2 Snickers Duo 3 Australian recall 4 Super Bowl XLI commercial controversy 5 References 6 External links

History

In the 1930s, the Mars family introduced its second brand, Snickers, named after one of their favorite horses.^[1] 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 milk chocolate. The completed bars are inspected, wrapped, and packed for shipment. The candy bar was first sold in the United States for twenty cents. From 1949 to 1952, Snickers was a sponsor of The Howdy Doody Show. The "fun size" bar was introduced in 1968, and the following decades saw more Snickers varieties introduced. Snickers were particularly popular among movie-goers during the 1970s and early 1980s, outselling some of its important competitors at movie theaters. In the early 2000s, deep fried candy bars (including Snickers, and Mars bars) became popular at U.S. state fairs and in pubs around the U.K. and Australia, although they had been a local specialty in some North of England and Scottish fish and chip shops since at least the mid-1990s^[5] in spite of containing over 850 calories per bar when prepared in this fashion. ^[6] In 2006, the UK Food Commission highlighted celebrity chef Antony Worrall Thompson's "Snickers pie"^[7], 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.^[8]

Renaming in UK and Ireland

In the UK and Ireland, it was originally sold under the name "Marathon". In October 1989, Mars standardised many of its global brand names and the name was changed to Snickers. For a few months before the name changed, the words "Internationally known as Snickers" were printed on the side of the Marathon wrapper. For eighteen months thereafter, both names were retained on the wrapper—^[3] first with "Marathon", then with "Snickers" in larger letters. The change of name attained some prominence in British and Irish popular cultures. As of 2006, it still occasionally appears as the subject or punchline of comedy routines.

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, Germany, Poland, Latvia, Austria, Slovakia and the Netherlands)
• 2002 Snickers Almond bar
• 2004 Snickers Marathon energy bars (see below)
• 2005 Snickers Ice Cream Bites
• 2006 Snickers Duo (see below)
• 2006 Snickers Xtreme (5 grams of protein per serving, lack of nougat)
• 2007 Snickers Dark (dark chocolate)

Others include:

• Snickers Flapjack
• Peanut Butter Snickers
• Snickers Gold
• Snickers Cake
• Snickers Ice Cream (in jugs and bars, made by Breyers)
• Snickers Nut N Butter Crunch
• Snickers Spread
• Snickers Bar Fudge
• 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 Armenia, Czech Republic, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Slovakia)
• Snickers 220 V (with guarana and L-carnitine, limited edition, seen in 2007 in Slovakia and Poland)
• Snickers P'opables
• Snickers Hazelnut (Australia)
• Snickers Maximus (Limited Edition, Extra Chewy Caramel, no nougat, Sold in New Zealand only)
• Snickers miniatures in Celebrations

Snickers Marathon energy bars

The "Snickers Marathon" energy bars are sold as an alternative to PowerBars, Clif Bar and similar rivals. The range includes:

• Energy bar
• Energy bar fortified for women
• Protein performance bar
• Low-carb lifestyle bar

These are available on both the US and UK markets.

Snickers Duo

A replacement for the king size Snickers bar, was launched in the UK in 2004, and designed to conform to the September 2004 Food and Drink Federation (FDF) 'Manifesto for Food and Health'. Part of the FDF manifesto was seven pledges of action to encourage the food and drink industry to be more health conscious.^[9] Reducing portion size, clearer food labels, reduction of the levels of fat, sugar and salt were among the FDF pledges. Mars Incorporated pledged to phase out their king-size bars in 2005 and replace them with shareable bars. A Mars spokesman said: "Our king-size bars that come in one portion will be changed so they are shareable or can be consumed on more than one occasion. The name king-size will be phased out."^[9] These were eventually replaced by the 'Duo', a twin bar pack. Duos are the same weight as the king-size but split into two bars, the idea of which is to share or save one bar for another time. The packaging even has step-by-step picture instructions of how to open your 'Duo' into two bars, in four easy-to-follow actions. ^[10] As Mars' stated fulfillment of their promise, the Duo format was met with criticism by the National Obesity Forum and National Consumer Council.^[11]

Australian recall

In July 2005, tens of thousands of Snickers and Mars Bars were removed from New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory store shelves 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 had been no demand for money, only complaints directed to an unidentified third party. Snickers and Mars Bars were available in every other state except NSW and ACT, and during this time Twix became the best selling chocolate from Mars. Police never discovered any evidence of tampering in any of the bars that were recalled.^[12]

Super Bowl XLI commercial controversy

On February 4, 2007, during Super Bowl XLI, Snickers commercials aired which resulted in complaints by gay and lesbian groups against the maker of the candy bar, Masterfoods USA of Hackettstown, New Jersey, a division of Mars, Incorporated The commercial, which had four alternate endings, showed a pair of auto mechanics accidentally touching lips while sharing a Snickers bar. Realizing that they "accidentally kissed", they, in three of the four versions, "do something manly" (mostly in the form of injury, including tearing out chest hair, striking each other with a very large pipe wrench, and drinking motor oil and windshield washer fluid). In the fourth version, a third mechanic shows up and asks if there is "room for three in this Love Boat".

The website for the commercials, since taken down, also featured Super Bowl players viewing the commercials and reacting with disgust to the "kiss". The website said that the commercials would be aired during the upcoming Daytona 500. Complaints were lodged against Masterfoods that the ads were homophobic. Human Rights Campaign president Joe Solmonese is quoted as saying

"This type of jeering from professional sports figures at the sight of two men kissing fuels the kind of anti-gay bullying that haunts countless gay and lesbian school children on playgrounds all across the country.^[13]"

Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) president Neil Giuliano said "That Snickers, Mars and the NFL would promote and endorse this kind of prejudice is simply inexcusable." Masterfoods has since pulled the ads and the website.^[14][15]

References

External links

• Snickers official homepage
• The Snickers Song 2006 Snickers TV Commercial
• Video Clip of the Controversial Commercial "Snickers Kiss" 2007 Snickers Super Bowl TV commercial
• UK Snickers Advert featuring Mr T 2007 Snickers UK TV Advert.

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