Depending on your age and resistance to change, potentially it never went away, but 34 years after the shock Snickers rebrand the Marathon bar is making a comeback in the UK.
The decision to drop the British name for the treat caused uproar back in 1990 and some diehard fans have been complaining about it ever since. So, with this nostalgic audience in mind, Mars has announced it is making a “special Marathon retro edition”.
The confectionery company said the revival was to mark a milestone for its UK business.
“We’re excited to bring back the Marathon bar branding for a limited period,” said the senior brand manager Steve Waters. “It’s a great way to celebrate over 90 years of Mars making chocolate in the UK. We hope fans of Snickers, who remember when it was called Marathon, will enjoy picking it up in store.”
The Snickers brand is actually the much older of the two, with the bar – nougat topped with caramel and peanuts and encased in milk chocolate – first going on sale in the US in 1930. According to Marathon lore, the company chose a different name for the UK launch because of concerns that Snickers rhymed with “knickers”.
The Marathon era ran from 1967 until 1990, when Mars decided that it wanted universal names for all its products, so it changed the by then established brand name to match its American cousin.
Whether you are team Snickers or Marathon there is no doubt that it is a nostalgic reference that ages you. In one episode of the hit TV series Unforgotten, a Marathon wrapper in a victim’s pocket was seen as a big clue that they might have been dead for a long time.
Sometimes companies underestimate the depth of loyalty consumers have for their brands, with, for example, last year’s decision by Nestlé to axe the 60-year-old Caramac bar met with dismay.
However, the tale brought hope for fans of other defunct chocolate bars and biscuits (Nestlé also recently shelved the Breakaway) as come the summer it was back in stores. Calls for its return were “heard loud and clear”, said Lisa Butterworth, the chocolate classics brand manager for Nestlé UK & Ireland, with the limited run giving people the “opportunity to savour and stock up on Caramac”.
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It is not the first time that the Marathon name has been revived, with Mars also producing a limited edition several years ago. This time round the bars are being sold exclusively in the supermarket chain Morrisons.