Snickers Candy Bar

In some ways, the Snickers Bar has it all. Made in 1930, the heyday of candy bars,  Snickers bar combined favorite flavors and textures, covering the gamut from chewy nougat center topped with smooth creamy caramel, and, lest the candy be too soft, roasted peanuts, making it a candy bar that goes crunch! All this, of course, was coated in a layer of milk chocolate. While Snickers have changed somewhat, the size is smaller, for example, the essentials remain the same.

A Quick Bite of Candy History

Snickers, your somewhat better-than-average candy bar, has an un-average story. It was created by Mars in 1930, as were many candy bars. The reason: early in candy bar history, World War I soldiers experienced candy bars in their rations. They loved them and proclaimed their glories when they returned from service. Like other candy bars, Snickers marketed their bars as a high protein snack or fix for quick energy. Well, yes. Everyone did that…especially in the Depression when honest-to-goodness high energy food was scarce.

Unlike other companies, who were selling their candy bars for .5 cents, the Mars family charged .20 cents, a remarkably higher price as wealth was rapidly shrinking. As for the name – you may be thinking the ha-ha kind of Snickers. Actually, the bar was named for a dead racehorse who, in its lifetime, was the favorite of family granddame Ethel Mars. Why name a horse Snickers? Who knows.

The Mars Candy Name Plot Thickens...

During that time, the Mars family lived on a 2,800-acre estate in Tennessee called Milky Way Farms. Milky Way farms, Milky Way confection. We get that. Next, Mars renamed "Snickers" the "Marathon Bar" when sold in England. “Snickers” rhymes with “knickers” the British term for underwear. The Mars marketers thought their candy-loving public might make wisecracks about the candy bar rather than buy them. 

Now the plot thickens: In 1973 Mars introduced a candy bar called the Marathon Bar to the U.S. It was a long, braided caramel bar coated in chocolate. If this reminds you of the British Curly Wurly made by Cadbury, it should. No matter, now there were two Marathon Bars by the same company. But there’s more.  In 1990, Mars changed the “Marathon Bar” to “Snickers” throughout the United Kingdom. The change sparked considerable public resistance. Meanwhile, Mars stopped making the Marathon Bar in the U.S., just in time for Cadbury to step in with…Curly Wurly.

Chocolate and caramel aside, Mars’ Snickers (or whatever you call them) took off with the 1970s Super Bowl ad campaign - “You’re not You When You’re Hungry” bringing us all the way back to its depression era start as a fix for quick energy.