{"id":8651,"date":"2013-02-01T12:42:08","date_gmt":"2013-02-01T17:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/?p=8651"},"modified":"2013-02-01T12:42:08","modified_gmt":"2013-02-01T17:42:08","slug":"that-time-nestle-gave-the-finger-to-butterfinger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/?p=8651","title":{"rendered":"That Time Nestle Gave The Finger to Butterfinger!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-8652\" alt=\"CC_Butterfinger_TheFinger_TITLE PLATE\" src=\"http:\/\/www.collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/CC_Butterfinger_TheFinger_TITLE-PLATE.jpg\" width=\"1024\" height=\"339\" srcset=\"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/CC_Butterfinger_TheFinger_TITLE-PLATE.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/CC_Butterfinger_TheFinger_TITLE-PLATE-300x99.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/>Though the title of today&#8217;s post might sound like some negative thing, it&#8217;s not.\u00a0\u00a0 Because today&#8217;s post is all about when Nestle promoted the Butterfinger brand with a slightly edgy, humorous take on itself.\u00a0 It&#8217;s also how they renamed Butterfinger to &#8220;The Finger&#8221;&#8230; at least for a day.<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->In a time just before FunnyOrDie.com and Facebook would become the default place to launch a campaign like this, Nestle presented this unusual Butterfinger campaign on Yahoo!&#8217;s own Comedy Network.\u00a0 Here&#8217;s how it started:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/nm-GfxofDTs\" height=\"360\" width=\"480\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>As modern day consumers, most of us have seen companies make focus group-inspired changes to their brands and logos before, so perhaps it was not entirely unbelievable that a brand like Butterfinger could somehow be altered in such a dramatic (and some would say ridiculous) way.\u00a0 But I suspect that most folks were savvy to the humor here.\u00a0 And I think this campaign had a good sense of humor about itself and even a bit of an edge.<\/p>\n<p>In the end, on April 1st, 2008 (naturally) 200,000 &#8220;The Finger&#8221; bars were given away at 7-Eleven stores around the country.\u00a0\u00a0 According to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.businesswire.com\/news\/home\/20080401006597\/en\/BUTTERFINGER-Change-April-Fools-Day-Prank-Celebrate\" target=\"_blank\">Business Wire<\/a>,<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>To celebrate clever humor and the launch of the Butterfinger Comedy Network, BUTTERFINGER is distributing nearly 200,000 <b>free<\/b> Finger Bars to consumers at more than 2,000 7-Eleven<b>\u00ae<\/b> stores in 10 major markets across the country. This will occur on the afternoon of April 1 only and while supplies last (one Finger Bar per customer). Participating markets include New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Seattle, Dallas, Boston and Miami.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I recently acquired a bar from that promotion and removed the wrapper for my collection.\u00a0 It&#8217;s practically like a Wacky Packages sticker brought to life.\u00a0 Here it is:<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_8654\" style=\"width: 1034px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8654\" class=\"size-full wp-image-8654\" alt=\"Nestle - 7-Eleven - The Finger - Butterfinger - promotional candy bar wrapper - April 1 2008\" src=\"http:\/\/www.collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/CC_Nestle-7-Eleven-The-Finger-Butterfinger-promotional-candy-bar-wrapper-April-1-2008.jpg\" width=\"1024\" height=\"609\" srcset=\"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/CC_Nestle-7-Eleven-The-Finger-Butterfinger-promotional-candy-bar-wrapper-April-1-2008.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/CC_Nestle-7-Eleven-The-Finger-Butterfinger-promotional-candy-bar-wrapper-April-1-2008-300x178.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-8654\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nestle &#8211; 7-Eleven &#8211; The Finger &#8211; Butterfinger &#8211; promotional candy bar wrapper &#8211; April 1st 2008<\/p><\/div>\n<p>From what I can tell, &#8220;The Finger&#8221; graphic was an ongoing element of the promotion, and may have been used as a lead up to the actual renaming stunt.\u00a0 Here are a trio of &#8220;The Finger&#8221; graphics I was able to mine from the 2008 internet:<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_8655\" style=\"width: 810px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8655\" class=\"size-full wp-image-8655\" alt=\"Butterfinger &quot;The Finger&quot; images - 2008\" src=\"http:\/\/www.collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/Finger-Graphics.jpg\" width=\"800\" height=\"1008\" srcset=\"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/Finger-Graphics.jpg 800w, http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/Finger-Graphics-238x300.jpg 238w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-8655\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Butterfinger &#8220;The Finger&#8221; images &#8211; 2008<\/p><\/div>\n<p>So this was all a big fun promotion that culminated in the giveaway of a novelty bar.\u00a0 It must have been at least somewhat successful because just over a year later they would follow-up with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/?p=5988\" target=\"_blank\">Seth Green and his &#8220;Dude Where&#8217;s My Butterfinger Bar&#8221; promotion<\/a>, which I wrote about last August.\u00a0 That promotion also culminated with a chance to get a free giveaway Butterfinger bar, that time in a retro wrapper.<\/p>\n<p>As far as I know, Nestle hasn&#8217;t had any other similar promotions, though it&#8217;s hard to be certain.\u00a0 If anyone else remembers one, write in and let us know.\u00a0 The wrappers for these make for pretty fun collectibles &#8211; especially since they&#8217;re only available for one day and sport unique designs.\u00a0\u00a0 Gotta love it.<\/p>\n<p>There was one other follow-up video I found related to this promotion.\u00a0\u00a0 In this one, they do on-the-street interviews with folks asking them what they think of the name change:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7wTF7uTd5xk\" height=\"360\" width=\"480\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>And that&#8217;s everything I&#8217;ve got for today.\u00a0 See you next time!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Though the title of today&#8217;s post might sound like some negative thing, it&#8217;s not.\u00a0\u00a0 Because today&#8217;s post is all about when Nestle promoted the Butterfinger brand with a slightly edgy, humorous take on itself.\u00a0 It&#8217;s also how they renamed Butterfinger &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/?p=8651\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/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":[56,116,119],"tags":[745,744,115,321,316,328,351,332,14,324,78,333,728,1216,21,142,15,348,1213,11],"class_list":["post-8651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chocolate-2","category-nestle","category-peanut-butter","tag-april-1st","tag-april-fools-day","tag-butterfinger","tag-candy-collecting","tag-candy-collection","tag-candy-collector","tag-candy-wrapper-collection","tag-candy-wrapper-collector","tag-collectible","tag-collecting-candy","tag-confectionery","tag-confections","tag-humor","tag-nestle","tag-packaging","tag-parody","tag-sweets","tag-vintage-candy-wrapper","tag-wacky-packages","tag-wrapper"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2aFGk-2fx","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8651","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=8651"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8651\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8670,"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8651\/revisions\/8670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/collectingcandy.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}