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Category Archives: 1980’s
Happy Easter from CollectingCandy.com!
Easter is another big candy holiday, and it’s been one as long as I can remember. Let’s face it, for candy, there’s Halloween, Christmas, and Easter – so it’s one of the Big-3. Today, I’m going to showcase an assortment … Continue reading
Play Ball!! Baseball’s Opening Day Tomorrow!
Tomorrow is the 2012 opening day for Major League Baseball. In order to mark this occasion, today’s post will showcase a number of fun baseball-related candy packages.
Posted in 1970's, 1980's, 1990's, Bubble Gum, Chocolate
Tagged 1970's, 1980's, 1990's, 70's, 80's, 90's, baseball, bubble, bubblegum, candy, chocolate, Clark, collectible, collecting, collection, collector, collectors, Curtiss, gum, Leaf, Major League, Major League Baseball, MLB, Opening Day, packaging, Reggie, Reggie Jackson, retro, sports, sweets, vintage, wrapper
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All About Razzles – First it’s a candy, then it’s a gum!
What can you say about Razzles? As it turns out, quite a lot. I don’t recall what my earliest memory of Razzles was, only that they seemed to be ever present in the tapestry of my confectionery youth.
Carlos V – Building a history for the King of Chocolate Bars.
I first became aware of Nestle’s Carlos V bar a year or two ago, when I saw the oddly-smallish bar at a Walgreens. At the time I wondered if it was an import or a new Nestle product, but I … Continue reading
Posted in 1970's, 1980's, 1990's, Chocolate, Nestle, Uncategorized
Tagged 1970's, 1980's, 1990's, 70's, 80's, 90's, antique, Azteca, candy, chocolate, collectible, collecting, collection, confectionery, king, Mexican, Mexico, Nestle, old, packaging, retro, Spanish, sweets, vintage, wrapper
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Behind the Music…Whistle Pops!
Whistle Pops, as they were called when I first encountered them, were introduced to United States consumers in 1975.
Posted in 1970's, 1980's, Hard Candy, Novelty
Tagged 1970's, 1980's, 70's, 80's, antique, candy, Chupa Chups, collectible, collection, confection, confectionery, hard candy, Keebler, mascot, musical, novelty, packaging, Peter Paul, pop, retro, sweets, vintage, whistle, whistling, wrapper
10 Comments
After years of hunting – Willy Wonka’s Daredevils – Discovered!
Collecting candy is a crazy kind of hobby. Sometimes you can spend years hunting for any trace of a brand or piece of packaging, and never find one. But it’s not always so tough – typically there is a photo … Continue reading
Posted in 1980's, Boxed, Hard Candy, Nestle, Wonka
Tagged 1980's, 80's, Breaker, candy, cinnamon, collecting, collection, confection, confectionery, Daredevils, devil, Gobstopper, jawbreaker, mascot, packaging, retro, sweets, vintage, Willy Wonka, Wonka
15 Comments
Pop Bottle Candy – a Topps classic from my Woolworth’s youth.
Since I launched CollectingCandy.com, there are a few topics that I’ve been especially excited to talk about and share pieces of – and Pop Bottle Candy is definitely one of them.
Posted in 1970's, 1980's, Hard Candy, Novelty, Topps
Tagged 1970's, 1980's, 70's, 80's, candy, collectible, collecting, collection, confection, confectionery, novelty, old, packaging, retro, sweets, vintage, wrapper
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A few new CurlyWurly bits.
Today I’d like to update my coverage of Cadbury’s CurlyWurly, based on a pair of new acquisitions and a deep search into my own files that turned up a wrapper I hadn’t found when I did my previous CurlyWurly article.
Posted in 1970's, 1980's, British, Chocolate, Uncategorized
Tagged British, Cadbury, candy, chocolat, collectible, collecting, confection, packaging, retro, sweets, UK, United Kingdom, vintage, wrapper, wrappers
3 Comments
It’s an Earth-Shaking Sunday with Swell’s Earth Shaker Bubble Gum.
Couldn’t decide what to talk about today, so I put my hand in the grab-bag and came out with a rather unusual piece from Philadelphia Chewing Gum’s Swell subsidiary – Earth Shaker bubble gum.
Posted in 1970's, 1980's, Bubble Gum, Gum
Tagged 1970's, 1980's, 70's, 80's, bubblegum, candy, collectible, collecting, collection, confection, Earth Shaker, Earthshaker, gum, packaging, Philadelphia Chewing Gum, sweets, Swell
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Happy 100th Birthday to Oreo! – Part One: The History
Oreo cookies are not a candy – they’re a cookie. Even so, I wanted to find a reason to post about this notable anniversary for the brand. So I searched my files and you know what? I found that I … Continue reading
![I was going to title this “If your family was poor and you grew up in the 1980s, this image will hit your soul.” but after some consideration, I realized that in 1983 your family didn’t have to be poor to want to find whatever way they could to save money.
Those early 1980s years were a period still coming to grips with years of inflation and other economic troubles. Those realities helped give way (and opportunity) to not only lower-cost private label products, but also “generics”.
The idea behind generics was that you were getting the absolute lowest cost possible for the item in question. Not a cent spent on design or advertising - it was plainly utilitarian.
The generics area of any grocery aisle (or your pantry) was visually stark and minimalist, so if you loved specific brands or eye-catching branding, it was also kind of sad. But for families that were struggling, cents mattered and these products were lifelines.
In the post pandemic years, we’ve had to endure similar inflation and so we’ve seen big growth in the private label category. Though I haven’t seen a movement to embrace “generics” in the same way.
Rather, private label has been an area of colorful innovation, offering the cost-savings without sacrificing all of the flash.
And while these generics of old were products one might have felt sad or embarrassed about having as a child, as a brand historian I find them nostalgic and deeply moving for the struggling family story they can help tell.
[Pictured are several early 1980s generic Mac and cheese boxes from my historical packaging archives.]
#privatelabel #branding #1980s #80snostslgia #genericproducts](http://collectingcandy.com/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed/img/placeholder.png)