A Trio of Classic 1970’s Candy Commercials not seen in 35 Years!

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As a candy marketing enthusiast, one of the fun things for me to look back on are the old TV commercials for candy products.  There’s no shortage of these wonderful commercials on spots like YouTube – a place where I’ve sought out many of them.  Some of these spots I remember fondly and some of them I’d never seen before.  For all that are out there and currently available to see – there remain countless candy commercials still lost to time and in recognition of CollectingCandy.com’s two-year anniversary tomorrow I’d like to remedy that – at least in a small way.

Today, I’m premiering three previously-lost 1970’s candy commercials.  Classics that, before today, have not been seen since their original broadcast dates.

The source of today’s commercials are original film reels which I acquired a handful of years ago.  I’d had them stored with my collection and finally put the effort forth to get them professionally transferred so that I could share them here.

For those that aren’t aware, film does not age well and even in the best of conditions, it can significantly degrade over time (a bit like a lot of vintage candy, it seems).  The original film reels for these three spots had, through the decades, begun to degrade.  Most notably, the color of the film itself began to take on a sort of yellowish-red cast.  Though a degree of color-correction has been performed on these you will still notice that the colors appear washed out.  In spite of that I hope you’ll enjoy the opportunity to see these wonderful commercial spots which haven’t been seen in a generation.

First up is a spot for the 1971 introduction of Nestle’s Choco’lite bar – a brand I’ve covered in the past.  In fact, this commercial reminds me I have a lot of updates and I’m due to create a Choco’lite follow-up post soon:

My second commercial for today is one that I’m particularly excited to share, as it is a previously-lost 1970’s Marathon bar commercial featuring Marathon John!  Regular readers may recall that last year I dedicated a series of posts to the Marathon bar, including one post dedicated to the Marathon John television spots.  My enthusiasm for those spots even led to the creation of a new Marathon John “retromercial” in the format of the originals.

During that three day coverage last year, I was aware of this fourth Marathon John commercial from when it was originally aired but I didn’t have a transfer of it and there was no copy to be found on the internet.  I’m happy to change that today.  Finally joining Quick Carl, Captain Quick, Quick Claude (and even our own Quick Calvin) – here is the  premiere of Marathon “Quick Kurt”:

Last up today, I have a great Snickers commercial with a jingle that I think you’ll agree is pretty catchy.  Though my memories of it are foggy, I do recall this one from my 1970’s Saturday Morning Cartoon viewing sessions.  Here is the spot for “Snickers – The Wild Bunch (of Peanuts)”:

And that’s everything – all three formerly-lost candy commercials!  There are still many similar candy commercials out there that have not been found, archived or preserved but in the coming years I hope to find and document as many as I can right here on this site.

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Tomorrow we’ll be celebrating CollectingCandy.com’s two-year anniversary with a post I’m especially proud of and one I’m excited to share.  I hope you’ll stop back by to check it out.

See you next time!

About Jason Liebig

A New York City based writer, editor and sometimes actor. After spending much of the 1990′s in the comic book business helping tell the stories of Marvel Comics’ X-Men as series editor, he has since split his time between developing his own entertainment properties while still consulting and working on others. Having been described as “the Indiana Jones of lost and forgotten candy”, Jason is one of the country’s premier candy collectors and historians with his discoveries appearing in countless blogs, magazines, newspaper articles, and books. Always happy to share his knowledge and unique perspectives on this colorful part of our popular culture, Jason has consulted with New York’s Museum of Food and Drink and has also been a featured guest on Food Network’s Heavyweights, France’s M6 Capital, and New York’s TheActionRoom.com. My Google Profile+
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10 Responses to A Trio of Classic 1970’s Candy Commercials not seen in 35 Years!

  1. David Moore says:

    Great stuff. Thanks for the post and bringing back a bit of sweet history. I remember the second and third spots. Candy was pretty damn important to me as a kid. I liked to try anything new. 😉
    Happy almost anniversary!

  2. Bret K says:

    As an ad guy, I love this post…but I just have one question: Why is there a butcher in the Choco’lite spot?!? Or maybe he was a baker. I dunno. Seems butcherish to me.

    • jasonliebig says:

      Yeah, the actors utilized in the Choco’lite commercial seemed to have been trying to hit all sorts of demographics. You have a young boy and girl, both who become animated, then you have your butcher/baker… and then you have a wholesome all-American girl at the beginning, and close with a sexy-vixen devouring one of the bars. It’s kind of all over the place.

      The bar was brand-new, so maybe they didn’t know what their audience was yet? What do you think?

  3. steve says:

    It’s a diner/greasy spoon short order fry cook not a butcher or baker or a candlestick maker(sorry couldn’t resist.). I think they were trying to say it’s a candy bar for everyone.

  4. Jason K. says:

    Great Post again! As a classic TV collector, I love to see old commercials that I haven’t seen before. And these 3 were all new to me! Great finds! If you’re looking for any specific classic candy commercials, let me know – I’ve got about 500 DVDs of TV shows from the 60s through the 90’s, transfered from Reels/Beta/VHS tapes of shows taped off the air with original commercials. (Plus a few hundred more tapes I haven’t even got to yet…..one of these days….). The Saturday Morning Cartoon blocks usually have great toy/cereal/candy commercials in them.

  5. Todd says:

    I can’t get enough of these old candy commercials!

  6. Pingback: Maximum Marathon Part 2: The Commercials! Plus a World Premiere Video! | CollectingCandy.com

  7. Paul Tagliaferro Lawton,OK says:

    Wow them commercials take me back to my youth I am 56 yrs old this awsome thans for taking me back time

  8. Paul Tagliaferro Lawton,OK says:

    That was fun going back in time

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