TOTALLY OT: UK CADBURY'S WISPA IS BACK!!!

[Muckymuck]

Re-launched in the UK today, after an absence of several years, the delightful 80s chocolate concoction, the Cadbury's Wispa!

Spotted a big stand in a Sainsbury's Local in London, with the advertising slogan something like "Some things are best left in the 80s, some are not!". Been waiting for this for a while now!

Just like Super 8 I suppose... something certainly not best left in the 70s! :D[/img]

[reflex]

I wouldn't suppose they kept the 1980s pricing, too?

[Mitch Perkins]

Just like Super 8 I suppose... something certainly not best left in the 70s! :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDgTOTijZLk

Mitch

[Clapton Pond]

Been waiting for this for a while now!

[/img]

I'm imagining you outside the Cadbury's factory for the last twenty years forlornly holding up your "Bring back Wispa" placard...

[Angus]

Many of us Brits are still upset that we now have to call a certain chocolate bar "snickers" instead of "Marathon".

I know it was called "Snickers" in many parts of the world before...but childhood memories die hard!

[mondo77]

Incredible Wispa fact! I was in Newcastle when the Wispa was trialed there. They always trial stuff in the NE of England - reason given is we like to spend on new stuff. Anyway, they had problems with the bars breaking in transit. So they put a layer of harder, darker chocolate on outside. If you snapped one you could see it in the cross section. It worked and they went nationwide. I never knew it was off the market, mind!

Crackerjack popcorn was trialed there in the early/mid 70's too.No-one remembers it in the UK. I guess it never got outside the NE.

My old man loved spearmint opal fruits.

[DriveIn]

Many of us Brits are still upset that we now have to call a certain chocolate bar "snickers" instead of "Marathon".

I know it was called "Snickers" in many parts of the world before...but childhood memories die hard!

In the US, a Marathon bar was different from a Snickers. I don't think they've made marathon bars since the late 1970's or very early 1980's. Was a braided flat chocolate covered caramel with a ruler on the package. They were both made by Mars candy company.

[Angus]

What we all call a Snickers today was called Marathon in the UK until the mid 80's. It was the same bar as a Snickers with the same font for the logo, same colour scheme on the wrapper.

In 2005 I saw a "Marathon sports bar" in the USA but it was a different product, longer and flatter and I think it had some pretention to be "healthy" or at least energy boosting.

Mars is interesting because Mr. Mars started his company in the USA and sent his wayward son to the UK to start Mars UK. Mars Jr was a strange man who tried to get John Wayne to advertise his chocolates for free, figuring that Wayne ought to feel privileged and pay for the association with such fine products!

However Mars Jr did many things right, and Mars UK ended up buying Mars USA....

Latterly both companies were made part of the Masterfoods conglomerate hence the rationalisation and worldwide brand identies we saw in the 80's. It costs less to call essentially the same chocolate bar different names in different countries.

Mind you, I don't go in for that sort of chocolate anyway. If you're gonna do drugs, do the good stuff....Montezuma's handmade 86% cocoa for me...

[standard8]

Many of us Brits are still upset that we now have to call a certain chocolate bar "snickers" instead of "Marathon".

I know it was called "Snickers" in many parts of the world before...but childhood memories die hard!

and "opal fruits" are now "starburst", "jif" is now "cif" and if i want to do my legs "imac" is now veet"

we need to start a campain!

[DriveIn]

Mars Jr was a strange man who tried to get John Wayne to advertise his chocolates for free, figuring that Wayne ought to feel privileged and pay for the association with such fine products!

Now that you mention it and you may not know the answer, but didn't John Wayne's son do some paid advertising for Mars in the 1970s?

[Muckymuck]

I remember a really daft Jif ad when they were changing the name... the gist of it was that no one in another country could get used to calling the product Jif upon rationalisation so the Brits would just have to put up with it being called Cif. Great way to get people to buy your product!

That said, I also read there was a copyright problem and that was the reason for the change- because there was, and still is, another product called Jif- it's LEMON JUICE! :D

[Angus]

Jif lemon and Jif cleaner co-existed for decades in the UK but maybe couldn't elsewhere?

Its all about cheaper advertising costs. It is cheaper to make one ad for many destinations....notice how they are almost all dubbed these days? Camera moving around so you can't obviously see that the actor's lips don't match what you hear?

Personally I thought it was fun that products had different names in different countries....cif to me is still too close to syph...