Archive for the ‘Hershey Company, The’ Category

If you grew up in the 1980s, you must watch this commercial  …

Don’t you love the Walkmans/headsets and the woman carrying a generic jar of peanut butter down the street—just because? Things were so much simpler back then.

If this commercial were shot today, the guy would be reading The New York Times on his iPad while unfurling a Hershey’s bar from a plastic wrapper, and not the silver foil (remember the shiny silver foil?).

The girl would be juggling her Blackberry and Starbucks cup, while trying to pull out a packet of Justin’s Almond Butter from her laptop bag.

The two would bump into each other, and either A: Not notice, B: Agree to text or follow on Facebook, or C: Sue for bodily harm.

Taking you further down memory lane, here’s a vintage ad that’s racking up thousands of views on YouTube …

For the record, Tootsie Roll Industries, stands by its age-old answer on how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop. On the company’s FAQ page, I found this statement: “It depends on a variety of factors such as the size of your mouth, the amount of saliva, etc. Basically, the world may never know.”

Last stop down the lane today: “candy too good for kids.” I never understood the rationale behind promoting a candy as too good for kids. When I was a kid, I didn’t want to even try Toffifay because I thought it must taste yucky if it’s not made for kids. Obviously, the reverse psychology didn’t work on me.

What’s your favorite candy commercial from when you were a kid?

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Several months years ago when I was a freshman in college, I had a roommate who loved to eat stale yellow Peeps (only yellow and stale to the point of crumbly).

A few weeks ago, I found out that a family friend likes M&M’s after they’ve been microwaved for 30 seconds. My husband, on the other hand, freezes Snickers for super crunchy cold snacking.

Last night, my neighbor confessed that she adores Starburst fruit chews, but has an aversion to the red ones, which are my all-time favorite.

That said, I have a theory that most every candy lover has a “candy quirk” (i.e., you only like the edges of a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup; you eat the sides of a Milky Way bar first; you only eat the blue M&M’s in the candy dish, etc.).

Prove my theory true by sharing your peculiar candy consumption habit (keep it G-rated or it will be tossed).

Everyone who leaves a comment after this post will be entered to win a $25 shopping spree at Candy.com.

See, it finally pays to love candy and have a quirk (or two).

Peeps photo credit: Tboard/Flickr

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It’s audience participation day here at Candy.com.

We want to know, “What discontinued candy brands would you like to see revived?” (Think PB Max, Summit Bar, Hershey’s BarNone, etc.)

I personally want to see the Marathon Bar* make a comeback, and not as a protein bar.  You know, the long, braided caramel bar covered in chocolate from the 1970s that left a trail of chocolate crumbs when you ate it? (If you’re not 30-something yet, you missed a good mess.)

Win Free Candy!
Everyone who replies to this call for candy casualties on Facebook/CandyDotCom or the Candy.com blog will be entered into a drawing to win 30 full-sized classic candy bars, including Kit Kats, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, Hershey’s Milk Chocolate, and Hershey’s Milk Chocolate With Almonds. Yum!

From your feedback, I’ll occasionally channel Colombo and find out whatever happened to a particular candy and report my findings here. Stay tuned.

I wonder if Lt. Columbo ever ate a Marathon Bar?

*See CandyBlog’s I Miss: Marathon post for great historical information on the original Marathon Bar.

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Last week, a friend told me that Skittles has more than 8 million Facebook fans. I checked this Saturday, and sure enough, Skittles has 8,682,144 friends. When I checked again last night, Skittles was up to 8,727,245 friends. That’s 45,101 friends joining the party in 48 hours.

Hmmmm. This made me wonder how many Facebook friends other top US candy brands have amassed … and what it would look like if I matched up the 25 best-selling candy brands in the US with each brand’s number of Facebook friends. My unscientific results may startle you.

Sales Rank*      Brand (Manufacturer)              Facebook Fans

25                       Ice Breakers (Hershey)              21,051

24                       Orbit White (Mars)                     566,854

23                       Dentyne Ice (Kraft)                     7,343 (Canada)

22                       Tic Tac (Ferrero)                         933,074

21                       Hershey’s Kisses (Hershey)       84,532

20                       Trident White (Kraft)                   (see Trident, No. 6 spot)

19                        Butterfinger (Nestle)                  527,262

18                        Milky Way (Mars)                       none found

17                        Starburst (Mars)                         3,971,587

16                        3 Musketeers (Mars)                  126, 713

15                        Dove (Mars)                               38,476

14                        Skittles (Mars)                            8,720,108

13                        Twizzlers (Hershey)                   54,829

12                        Twix (Mars)                                984,655

11                        Eclipse (Mars)                            none found

10                        Extra (Mars)                               95,879

9                          Kit Kat (Hershey)                       889,183

8                          Stride (Kraft)                              689,771

7                          5 (Mars)                                     1,462,127

6                          Trident (Kraft)                            329,249

5                          Orbit (Mars)                               566,851

4                          Snickers (Mars)                         596,860

3                          Hershey’s                                   1,014,925

2                          Reese’s PB Cups (Hershey’s)   3,515,716

1                          M&M’s (Mars)                            1,152,646

(*Sales Rank based on retail sales data from Symphony IRI Group, a Chicago-based market research firm for the 52 weeks that ended on Sept. 6, 2009. Data collected from supermarkets, drugstores, gas/C-stores and mass market retailers, excluding Walmart.)

Extrapolating from my “research,” Facebook friends and product sales don’t really correlate. Skittles is by far the most popular US candy brand on Facebook, but it’s not in the top 10 for sales. Tic Tac has close to 1 million friends, but the itty-bitty mints rank 22 out of 25 for sales. Even so, it’s interesting to see which brands are using Facebook as a major marketing platform, and which are not.

I am always a fan of the underdog, so if Mars does decide to create a Facebook page for Milk Way, I want to be the first BFF.

What candy brands have you “friended”?

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