Snickers: named after a horse, sold as Marathon, and quietly shrinking
Mars launched Snickers in Chicago in 1930 and named it after the family's favourite horse. It is widely rated the world's bestselling candy bar, yet British shoppers bought it as Marathon until 1990, and the bar on their shelves today is noticeably lighter than the one sold there before 2009.
The formula is simple: nougat, caramel and peanuts inside milk chocolate. An ingredient list from around 1939 included malted milk, coconut oil and sweetened condensed milk; by 2019 palm oil and artificial flavour had crept in. Variants now range from minis, credited to Carlos Calle, to almond, pecan, protein and fiery versions, and in 2024 Mars joined Jel Sert on a pudding and pie mix. Worldwide sales exceed $380 million a year.
International expansion came after Forrest Mars Sr. took charge in the 1960s, with launches in Britain and West Germany in 1968 and France in 1989. In Britain and Ireland it wore the Marathon name, reportedly because Snickers sounded too much like knickers, and Morrisons sold a retro Marathon edition for three months in 2019. The British bar weighed 62.5 grams before 2009, 58 grams after that, and 48 grams from 2013. Australian bars went from 53 to 50 grams when production moved to China, then to 44 grams in 2022 once it returned home.
Cooks have done strange things with it. Scottish fish and chip shops began deep-frying chocolate bars in 1995, a habit that reached American state fairs in the early 2000s, at roughly 450 calories a piece. In 2006 the Food Commission singled out Antony Worrall Thompson's Snickers pie, made with five bars, as one of the unhealthiest desserts ever, at more than 1,250 calories a slice from sugar and fat.
Marketing has courted both sport and controversy. Mars paid $5 million to make Snickers and M&M's official snacks of the 1984 Olympics, angering nutritionists, and backed every World Cup from 1990 to 1998. A Super Bowl advert on February 4, 2007, showing two mechanics accidentally kissing, was withdrawn after gay rights groups called it homophobic. The 2010 campaign You're Not You When You're Hungry opened with Betty White and Abe Vigoda playing football, and ADBOWL named it advert of the year.
Source: Snickers
