Today I’d like to update my coverage of Cadbury’s CurlyWurly, based on a pair of new acquisitions and a deep search into my own files that turned up a wrapper I hadn’t found when I did my previous CurlyWurly article.
To start, I’ll present this ad that came from the March 10th, 1973 edition of Fleetway’s Lion and Thunder weekly. I had never seen this one before, but it popped up on eBay and I snagged it:
UK - Cadbury CurlyWurly print ad - March 1973
Next up is a French CurlyWurly wrapper that I received from my friend Cybele over at CandyBlog. I picked up a French Curly Wurly wrapper of my own during a trip to France in November of 2011, and it featured a mascot and design that the 2010 version did not.
Interestingly, the 2010 French version utilized what was, at the time, the brand new logo design adopted by the UK CurlyWurly:
UK - Cadbury - Curly Wurly - CurlyWurly candy bar wrapper - new design - 2010
Here are both of the French versions, showcasing the evolution of the wrapper design. It’s interesting how rapidly the French wrapper switched it up:
France - Cadbury - CaramBar - Curly Wurly - chocolate candy bar wrapper - 2010
France - Cadbury - Carambar - Curly Wurly - chocolate candy bar wrapper - November 2011
Finally, my most exciting new CurlyWurly addition: a late-80’s/early-90’s UK wrapper. It’s a major design evolution that my collection has lacked and one I’ve been hunting for, for some time. I had been able to track down an early 1990’s New Zealand wrapper, thinking it was identical, but it turns out the design is not quite the same at all.
UK - Cadbury's - CurlyWurly - chocolate candy bar wrapper - 1989
New Zealand - Cadbury - Curly Wurly -CurlyWurly - NEW - chocolate candy bar wrapper - early 1990's
If you look at the two logos, they do appear the same at first glance – while a closer look shows many odd differences. It’s as if the New Zealand branch didn’t have access to the original designs, and based their version on a photo. Oddly, the letter “l” on the 1989 UK version becomes a number “1” on the New Zealand. Besides that, the colors and typefaces used are inconsistent.
While I thought I knew all about the relationship between the New Zealand wrapper and the UK – acquiring one has shown me I didn’t know quite as much as I thought. A fun discovery to be sure.
Eventually, I will go back to revise my original CurlyWurly post and graphic timeline, incorporating these new additions. That’s all for today’s update. Hope to see you back here tomorrow.
after reading your blog for the past week or two, i had a dream about looking for a curly wurly bar last night 😛 i’ve never even tried one!
That early 90s NZ wrapper is bloody amazing. As you can probably surmise from Cadbury Schweppes’ Australian address on the wrapper, it’s the very same version we had in Australia. Despite Cadbury having production facilities in Australia, Curly Wurly was never produced locally and always imported from New Zealand until recently. It makes sense, given the specialised equipment I would imagine necessary to produce the crazy confection.
As well as I can remember, the only two wrapper designs we ever had for Curly Wurly in Australia were that initial, UK-inspired one, and the later ‘curly arms guy’ wrapper that we had up until 2010. At that point we briefly got the UK-produced Curly Wurly, which then of course switched to the Poland-made version.
(Sorry to write such a long comment, but I know you’re as detail-oriented as I am, so I figured I’d volunteer my recollections.)
Out of interest, I designed this pack whilst working for a Studio in the Midlands UK.It was produced before digital artwork came in ,so all done by patching photo prints and typesetting in place, then specifying colours (pantone) for the printer to match. The original design was done very neatly by myself with markers for client approval. I still have a copy of the original design somewhere! I designed lots of wrappers and seasonal packs ( ie Land of Cadbury Bunny for Easter etc) in the same way, using conventional illustration and artwork. Still at it, but not for Cadbury’s anymore!