{"id":4686,"date":"2012-06-21T12:37:52","date_gmt":"2012-06-21T16:37:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/?p=4686"},"modified":"2012-06-21T14:31:39","modified_gmt":"2012-06-21T18:31:39","slug":"a-quick-taste-of-counter-culture-candy-or-when-social-movements-become-tasty-treats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/?p=4686","title":{"rendered":"A Quick Taste of Counter-Culture Candy — Or When Social Movements Become Tasty Treats!"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I wanted to share something quick and fun today, so I came up with two pieces that reflect the counter-culture movement of the 60’s and 70’s, albeit in a small way.<\/p>\n

Hippies – what can I say?\u00a0 I grew up with them in the 70’s, and I kinda dig ’em.<\/p>\n

First up is something from the makers of Smarties (the USA sugar tablet version, not the M&M-like Smarties available everywhere else on the globe).\u00a0 We all know candy necklaces and in 1970’s the Ce De Candy Company offered up these groovy “Candy Love Beads”:<\/p>\n

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Ce De Candy Inc – Candy Love Beads – trade ad – August 1970<\/p><\/div>\n

Yes, you could indeed be a cool cat with your candy necklace in 1970.\u00a0 I’m sure the Haight-Ashbury crowd would have enjoyed love beads they could eat.\u00a0 Seriously.<\/p>\n

The other piece I have for today is an odd one, and it’s where today’s wonderful little shirtless mascot originates from.\u00a0 Feast your eyes on Gypsy Boots:<\/p>\n

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Gypsy Boots – Gypsy Boots Energy Bar – candy bar wrapper – 1970’s<\/p><\/div>\n

Sure, it’s as much energy\/health food bar as it is a candy bar, but that’s fine.\u00a0 It’s still awesome, and awesomely weird.<\/p>\n

[Edit:\u00a0 I somehow missed the Wikipedia entry and dedicated site for Mr. Gypsy Boots, famous alternative health food guru. \u00a0 – check it out here <\/a>and here<\/a>.]<\/p>\n

It’s always interesting when a cultural or societal movement eventually becomes a way to market products, especially products for kids, like candy.\u00a0 It eventually happened with the counter-culture of the 60’s and 70’s with things like Ce De’s Love Beads (though Gypsy Boots was authentically produced by one of the very first health-food enthusiasts).\u00a0\u00a0 Tick forward a bit more, and you’ll find that the Punk Rock movement became very marketed, along with skateboarding, rap and hip-hop, and so much more.\u00a0 Just about any social movement or trend can and will eventually become used to market products.\u00a0\u00a0 Which isn’t to say it’s a bad thing, because that’s sort of how our consumer culture operates, but I find it fascinating and fun.<\/p>\n

One last fun bit for today… a perfect example of the punk rock movement being altered and used to market a candy product.\u00a0 Here is one of my favorite 1980’s candy pieces – a box for Willy Wonka’s Punkys:<\/p>\n

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Sunmark – Wonka – Punkys candy box – 1986<\/p><\/div>\n

I hope my gum-collecting pal (and punk rock pioneer) Jeff Nelson<\/a> will appreciate that one.<\/p>\n

And that’s all for today.\u00a0 Thanks for dropping in!<\/p>\n

By the way – still working on that “whopper” of a feature-length piece for this week, but it’s not quite done.\u00a0\u00a0 It’s turning out to be a bit more research and time-intensive than I had planned.\u00a0 But all in the service of coming up with something really cool.\u00a0 Sorry for the delay but stay tuned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I wanted to share something quick and fun today, so I came up with two pieces that reflect the counter-culture movement of the 60’s and 70’s, albeit in a small way. Hippies – what can I say?\u00a0 I grew up … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,24,6,164],"tags":[377,317,384,349,378,379,385,388,321,316,328,387,322,324,383,96,382,314,347,380,381,386],"class_list":["post-4686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1960s","category-1970s","category-1980s","category-wonka","tag-1960s-candy","tag-1970s-candy","tag-1970s-candy-wrappers","tag-1980s-candy","tag-60s-candy","tag-70s-candy","tag-80s-candy","tag-candy-candy-wrapper-collection","tag-candy-collecting","tag-candy-collection","tag-candy-collector","tag-candy-mascots","tag-candy-wrapper-collecting","tag-collecting-candy","tag-collecting-candy-wrappers","tag-counter-culture","tag-old-candy-wrappers","tag-vintage-candy","tag-vintage-candy-box","tag-vintage-candy-boxes","tag-vintage-candy-wrapers","tag-willy-wonka-candy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2aFGk-1dA","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4686"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4686\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4709,"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4686\/revisions\/4709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}