Smarties (the pressed dextrose candies found in the USA) are a classic treat that countless people have fond memories of. Because of their small, individually-wrapped size, they’ve always been a perfect treat to give out for Halloween. With that in mind, today I’d like to share a 1980’s Halloween-themed package for Smarties I recently discovered.
For as long as they’ve been around, Smarties have been produced and sold by the Ce De candy company (though recently the company name appears to have changed to “Smarties Candy Company”). Ce De’s are best-known for pressed-dextrose candies, just like their famous Smarties, and they’ve produced all sorts of creative products using the process – even releasing a set of “love beads” back in the 70’s.
But getting back to Smarties, let’s take a look at today’s Halloween package:
[Note: I’ve indicated that this package is from the 80’s, though I want to point out that it could be from the late 70’s. There’s not enough information for me to be 100% certain on the dating of this one.]
I like how the Halloween design element of this package was just tacked on to the top of what must have been the standard all-year-round package design. I’ve seen that with 1960’s and 1970’s holiday packaging a number of times before.
I’m fortunate that this Halloween package was accompanied by a single individual cellophane Smarties wrapper. This is the style that I remember from my own childhood:
I happen to have picked up a modern peg bag of Smarties recently, so I thought I’d include that in today’s post (even though this modern example is an all-year-round version, not a Halloween seasonal package):
And here’s a modern individual cello Smarties roll wrapper:Soon, I plan to cover the modern brand extensions that Smarties have branched out into (like Smarties Taffy and Smarties Gummies, to name two). For now, this is everything on my vintage Halloween Smarties package from the 1980’s!
See you next time!
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Today’s post has been part of CollectingCandy.com’s 2013 Countdown to Halloween. To check out other sites celebrating Halloween all month long, check out the official CountdownToHalloween site.
I’ve been looking everywhere for vintage advertising, or vintage wrappers for the Smarties “Pops” or “Lollies” and surprisingly I’ve come up very short… Any ideas?
I love your site, btw. I’ve been doing some writing on vintage candy, non-professionally, and your site is a constant go-to. thanks, JN