{"id":16063,"date":"2014-12-11T11:04:37","date_gmt":"2014-12-11T16:04:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/?p=16063"},"modified":"2014-12-11T11:04:37","modified_gmt":"2014-12-11T16:04:37","slug":"origins-of-the-sprint-bar-mars-original-take-on-the-kit-kat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/?p=16063","title":{"rendered":"Origins of the Sprint Bar – Mars’ Original take on the Kit Kat!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"CC_Mars<\/p>\n

Early last year, I unearthed the story of M&M\/Mars 1970’s take on their competitor’s Kit Kat – a chocolate wafer bar dubbed the Snik Snak<\/a>.\u00a0 But what I didn’t realize at the time was that Mars’ history with a Kit Kat-like chocolate wafer product dated back to at least a couple of decades earlier and that this story had a few more forgotten twists and turns to it.\u00a0 So make the jump to discover the previously-unseen origins of Mars’ Sprint Bar!<\/p>\n

Our story begins way back in the 1950’s (I’m reasonably certain that’s where it begins – but it could go earlier) when Mars was being called Food Manufacturers Incorporated<\/em>.\u00a0\u00a0 That’s when they released their “Premium Chocolate Wafer Bar”.\u00a0 Chances are, the Premium bar was designed to compete directly with Rowntree’s Kit Kat.<\/p>\n

\"Rowntree

Rowntree – KitKat – Kit Kat – 10-cent candy bar wrapper – 1950’s 1960’s<\/p><\/div>\n

At this point in its history, the Kit Kat bar was made in England but it had begun to be imported and sold in the United States.<\/p>\n

Here’s Food Manufacturers Inc.’s Premium Chocolate Wafer Bar wrapper:<\/p>\n

\"Food

Food Manufacturers Inc – Premium Chocolate Wafer Bar – 3\/4 oz candy wrapper – 1950’s<\/p><\/div>\n

Sometime after this, the Premium Chocolate Wafer Bar was re-christened as the M&M’s Chocolate Wafer Bar, and the parent company now listed as “M&M’s Candies, a division Of Food Manufacturers Inc.”<\/p>\n

Aside from those differences, the wrapper design remained largely the same.<\/p>\n

\"Food

Food Manufacturers Inc – M&M’s Candies – M&M’s Chocolate Wafer Bar – 11\/16 oz candy bar wrapper – 1950’s 1960’s<\/p><\/div>\n

The M&M’s Chocolate Wafer Bar probably lasted into the early 1960’s, but around 1964-65, Mars gave the bar a refresh and a rename – now calling it the M&M’s Sprint bar.\u00a0 Besides the main name change, the description of the bar changed from “chocolate wafer” to “chocolate crisp”. \u00a0 This wrapper also now listed its manufacturer as the more familiar “M&M\/Mars – Division of Mars Incorporated.”\u00a0 [Note:\u00a0 In spite of the change from wafer to crisp, it appears the actual product remained the same.]<\/p>\n

\"Mars

Mars – M&M’s Sprint – chocolate crisp – 8\/10 oz chocolate candy bar wrapper – mid-1960’s<\/p><\/div>\n

You can catch a glimpse of the M&M’s logo-embossed Sprint wafer bars in the following 1967 television spot, uploaded to YouTube by one of CollectingCandy.com’s friends, Darryl Heine.<\/p>\n