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 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 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.[3]
History
In 1930, the Mars family introduced its second brand, Snickers, named after one of their favorite horses.[1] 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.[citation needed] 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-1980s.
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.[4]
Renaming 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[5] — 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" (e.g. the tongue twister "Granny Snickers").[citation needed].
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.[6]
Advertising Trouble
Snickers ran an ad during the 2007 Super Bowl which depicted two auto mechanics accidentally "kissing" while eating opposite ends of the same Snickers bar. However, the primary controversy stemmed from two alternate versions of the same commercial posted on the Snickers website in the days leading up to the Super Bowl. In "Motor Oil" the men recoil after 'kissing' and drink oil and antifreeze (implying violence, even suicide is preferable to being gay). After the 'kiss' in "Wrench", one of the men picks up a large wrench and beats other in the head - the other man places the first man's head under the hood and slams the door. The two alternate versions were available along with commentary from various Colts and Bears football players who said things like "that ain't right", in reference to the men kissing - not the homophobic violence that occurred afterwards.
The version that ran during the Super Bowl placed #9 in a USA Today poll ranking Bowl ad popularity. Mars, Inc. came under fire after gay-advocacy groups denounced the homophobic (and violent) overtones in the alternate, web-only commercials. All three versions have been pulled by candy maker since "some may have found the ad offensive."[7]
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, Latvia 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)
- 2006 Snickers Duo (See below)
Others include:
- Snickers Flapjack
- Snickers Ice Cream (sold by tub rather than in bars)
- 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 Czech Republic, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and 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 UK markets.
Snickers Marathon is not to be confused with "Marathon", the former name for Snickers in the UK and Ireland.
Snickers Duo
A replacement for the king size Snickers bar, sold in the UK. It was split into two separate pieces 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.[8] 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.[8]
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. [9] As Mars' stated fulfillment of their promise, the Duo format was met with criticism by the National Obesity Forum and National Consumer Council.[10]
Australian recall
In July 2005, tens of thousands of Snickers and Mars Bars were pulled off Australian 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 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.[11]
Content information
Nutritional information
Serving Size: 1 bar (Canadian version)
Amount per serving: Calories 280, Fat Calories 130, Total Fat 14g (22% DV), Saturated Fat 5g (25% DV), Trans Fat 0.3g, Cholesterol 5mg (2% DV), Sodium 140mg (6% DV), Total Carbohydrates 36g (12% DV), Fiber 1g (4% DV), Sugars 30g, Protein 4g, Vitamin A (2% DV), Vitamin C (0% DV), Calcium (4% DV), Iron (4% DV).
Ingredients
- Snickers ingredients list (U.S. version): milk chocolate (sugar, cocoa butter, chocolate, lactose, skim milk, milkfat, soy lecithin, artificial flavor), peanuts, corn syrup, sugar, skim milk, butter, milkfat, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, lactose, salt, egg whites, artificial flavor.[1]
- Snickers ingredients list (CAN version): milk chocolate (sugar, cocoa butter, milk ingredients, cocoa mass, lactose, soy lecithin, artificial flavor), peanuts, corn syrup, sugar, milk ingredients, lactose, salt, dried-egg white, hydrogenated palm kernel oil, artificial flavor.
- Snickers ingredients list (UK version): milk chocolate (sugar, cocoa butter, chocolate, skim milk, lactose, milkfat, soy lecithin, artificial flavor), peanuts, corn syrup, sugar, milkfat, skim milk, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, lactose, salt, egg whites, chocolate, artificial flavor.[12]
The Superbowl Ad Controversy
Template:Hangon On February 4, 2007, during Super Bowl XLI Snicker commercials aired which got the parent firm, Mars of Hacketsville, NJ in hot water with national gay and lesbians groups. The commercial showed a pair of auto mechanincs accidently touching lips while sharing a Snickers bar. Realizing that they "accidently kissed" they, in three of the four versions "do something manly" like tear our chest hair, hit one with pipe wrench, or drink motor oil andwindshield washer fluid. The website for the commercials, since taken down, also featured immedi [13]
References
- ^ a b c Snickers FAQ, M&M/Mars Consumer Affairs Information. Article retrieved 2006-11-06.
- ^ http://www.usatoday.com/money/advertising/adtrack/2005-01-30-track-snickers_x.htm
- ^ Snickers Marathon - Long Lasting Energy Bar, Snickers Marathon corporate website. Article retrieved 2007-01-31.
- ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4682508.stm
- ^ The Marathon candy bar, Christian Science Monitor, Home forum 1999-03-18
- ^ "dion", Snickers Marathon?? Screwing with my brain and the past, techno.blog("Dion") 2004-02-23
- ^ Associated Press (Tuesday, February 6, 2007). "Snickers Ad of Men Accidentally Kissing Pulled After Complaints From Gay Groups". FoxNews.com. Retrieved 2007-02-06.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ a b Fleming, Nic (article author), Chocolate bars cut down to size, telegraph.co.uk. Article dated 2004-09-27, retrieved 2006-12-08. Quote is from Michael Jenkins (external affairs director at Masterfoods, as parent company was then known).
- ^ h2g2 (editors)The Rise and Fall of 'King-Size' Chocolate Bars (UK), h2g2 at bbc.co.uk. Article retrieved 2006-12-08.
- ^ Hickman, Martin, "Chocolate makers eat their words on king-size snacks", The Independent (London) (via find articles.com; article no longer online at independent.co.uk). Article written 2006-01-06, retrieved 2006-12-08.
- ^ "Mars, Snickers Recalled Due to Poison Threat", health.dailynewscentral.com. Article dated 2004-07-01.
- ^ Nutrition information, Snickers UK website. Article retrieved 2006-11-13.
- ^ Superbowl Controversy, FOX sports. Article retrieved 2007-02-06.
External links
- Snickers official homepage
- Terribly in depth review of a regular Snickers bar
- Review and pictures of a deep-fried Snickers bar
- The Snickers Song 2006 Snickers TV Commercial
- Video Clip of the Controversial Commercial "Snickers Kiss" 2007 Snickers Super Bowl TV commercial