Back in the early 1970’s, the M&M/Mars company took a stab at replicating some of the new found success of rival Hershey’s Kit Kat bar by introducing something that looked and sounded pretty familiar, the Snik Snak. Since first discovering the Snik Snak, I’ve been fascinated with the brand and its brief confectionery run.
Snik Snak was released in 1973 and was announced to the candy business in April of that year, as found in this vintage trade announcement:
M&M-Mars – Snik Snak – candy trade announcement – April 1973
The earliest wrapper in my collection matches the primarily white wrapper found in that early trade clipping. [Note: It was quite a year for M&M/Mars as just a few months later they would introduce my personal favorite, the Marathon bar.]:
![M&M Mars - Snik Snak Stiks [Kit Kat] - candy bar wrapper - 1973](http://www.collectingcandy.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/CC_MM-Mars-Snik-Snak-Stiks-Kit-Kat-candy-bar-wrapper-early-1970sb.jpg)
M&M Mars – Snik Snak Stiks [Kit Kat] – candy bar wrapper – 1973
![M&M Mars - Snik Snak Stiks [Kit Kat] - candy bar wrapper - late 1974](http://www.collectingcandy.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/CC_MM-Mars-Snik-Snak-Stiks-Kit-Kat-candy-bar-wrapper-1974b.jpg)
M&M Mars – Snik Snak Stiks [Kit Kat] – candy bar wrapper – late 1974
M&M Mars – Snik Snak – chocolate candy bar wrapper – 1977
That’s the extent of the Snik Snak wrappers that I’ve tracked down over the years. Based on the lack of evidence to the contrary, I believe that Snik Snak was discontinued by 1979 and that there may have been no other major looks for the brand.
I do have one other piece of packaging that sports the Snik Snak logo. The brand is promoted on the back of this one pound M&M’s package:
M&M Mars – M&M’s Plain Chocolate Candies – One Pound bag – Snick Snack Sticks on back – mid-1970’s
And that’s everything I’ve got to share on the brief history of M&M/Mars’ delightfully-named Snik Snak.
See you next time!
[Note: Today’s post marks the 350th entry for CollectingCandy.com. We’ll be breaking off a piece of a Kit Kat bar in celebration. Woo-hoo!]
It’s interesting that the tag line for this appears to be “Take a Break, Take a Snik-Snak…”
Didn’t Kit-Kat adopt the “Gimme A Break, Break me off a piece of that Kit-Kat bar!” promotion in the 80s? Were they subtly digging the knife into Mars?
Yeah, I noticed that as well Pax. Hard to say for certain.
I couldn’t be sure, but based upon how much they lifted from Kit Kat already, I just assumed that the Kit Kat slogan pre-dated Snik Snak in some way. Couldn’t find anything definitive on that, however.
It’s a bit difficult to see from the illustration on the wrapper, but the structure of the bar as I see it seems to closely resemble Cadbury’s Bar Six, which was Cadbury’s rival to KitKat in the UK – the difference being was that there were six smaller pieces going down the bar rather than KitKat’s four longer pieces across the bar. Bar Six was launched around the mid 60’s and disappeared some time in the 80’s.
The slogan “Have a Break, Have a Kit Kat” has been running in advertising for KitKat since the 1950s, so a definite cheeky rip-off by Mars here.
Love this post!
I didn’t remember the (shameless clone) Snik Snak… Except it’s similarities to Kit Kat probably helps explain why me & my friends all experience some confusion when reminiscing about old treats from the 70s & 80s. I wonder how many other candy doppelgangers there were. (Hey, maybe that would be a great article Jason!) As mentioned by mattysb, the Snik Snak sure reminded me of one of my all-time faves too – the Bar Six.
Can’t look at this without remembering Zik Zak from MAX HEADROOM.
I remember when they came out and also trying them too. I believe they were crisper than Kit Kat and the chocolate did not seem as smooth as a kit kat bar. Also – the inside was not as tasty as a kit kat. When I had the choice – always got a kit kat over a snik snak !!
FASCINATING, and I somehow missed out on these in 1970’s New Jersey – though one of the wrappers says they were made here! I have to wonder if they were widespread – I was all over the candy racks back then.
Snik Snak was one of my favorite chocolate snacks of the ’70s, and then it disappeared. I thought it was tastier and much better than Kit Kat. I wish Mars would bring Snik Snak back; no changes to the recipe, please!
These disappeared right about the same time Mars brought their Twix bars over from the UK. They probably figured the two lines would compete.
Agreed! I loved it. I was too young to remember the name, so I’m glad I found this post. At least I know what to ask for if I ever free a genie from a bottle. 😉
I just noticed in the April 19, 2015 episode of Mad Men there is a scene whet Don Draper uses a vending machine that is stocked with Mars products including Snik Snaks.
I noticed a Snik Snak bar in the vending machine shown in a scene of the April 19, 2015 episode of “Mad Men” which prompted me to search for info on the product and led me to this article. The problem is that the episode is supposed to be taking place in 1970, which is three years before the Snik Snak existed!
I just saw these Snik Snaks in a vending machine on Mad Men, the latest episode, which is supposed to be 1970 I believe. Interesting mistake, if indeed it was intro’d in 1973!
It was and they did, make a mistake that is.
I’ve consulted with the production a number of times and this time they decided not to contact me. So they got it wrong.
But they still used my scans to make the props. Which I’m perturbed about.
My dad says he remembers Snik Snak’s in 1966 when he worked at a liquor store. I found this link on line that says they were introduced in the mid 60’s
http://www.retroland.com/snik-snak/
Tina,
My suspicion is that your father is recalling Mars’ previous effort, the Sprint bar:
http://www.collectingcandy.com/wordpress/?p=16063
The Retroland article is just incorrect.
Jason
I enjoyed seeing this. I remember Snik Snaks vividly from the 1970’s- and like a couple of other commenters, I preferred it to Kit Kat. My recollection is that the chocolate in Snik Snaks was lighter and sweeter than the chocolate in the Kit Kats …. reminding me of the delicious Toggi bars that are made in Europe (Switzerland, perhaps?) I would love to see Mars bring these back someday.
I remember this candy! I wanted to try it sooooo bad but I have a peanut allergy. I had to stick with Kit Kat. Maybe next time they will drop the peanuts!
Thanks! I clearly remember the very 1970s sounding jingle in the commercials for Snik Snak. I thought I was going nuts because no one I know seems to remember such a candy bar.
(No one seems to remember Libby’s Fruit Float, either.)
I have a peanut allergy. I am 65 years old. So with that said, I found snik snak a candy bar verboden to my system. I was discussing the blight of only having 4 candy bars to eat growing up with my grandchildren. I looked up snik snak. I found this article.
I also found my proof of something I knew. Plain M&Ms once had peanuts listed in the ingredients. Growing up, I wondered why I would have a reaction from M&Ms. In the 70s I read the ingredients and there was the answer. Now I can keep this as my proof. I wrote Mars and asked why both Plain and Peanut M&Ms had peanuts. NO answer. Sometime later they dropped the inclusion of peanuts to “may contain” peanuts. I still don’t touch M&Ms, peanut or plain. Thanks for listing.
I remember preferring Snik Snak to Kit Kat, as a pre-schooler, as it had 6 segments instead of just 4 in Kit Kat. Kids are stupid. Or maybe just me?
Snik snak was just on a 1974 episode of Let’s Make a Deal.I’ve never heard of it,but Monty Hall did.