| Product type | Chocolate Bar |
|---|---|
| Owner | The Hershey Company |
| Country | United States |
| Introduced | 1925 |
| Website | hersheys |
Mr. Goodbar is a candy bar containing peanuts and chocolate, whose packaging is identifiable by its yellow background and red text. It is manufactured by The Hershey Company and was introduced in 1925. Although the Hershey Milk Chocolate Bar with Almonds had been produced since 1908, Milton Hershey initially did not want the Hershey brand name associated with a chocolate bar that contained peanuts, so it was introduced as being produced by the "Chocolate Sales Corporation" (a fictitious company name created by William Murrie).[1] It is currently available both as an individual product and as one of the varieties of Hershey's Miniatures.
During the Great Depression, sales of Hershey's products dropped 50%. Milton Hershey, determined not to let it affect his employees and the town he created for them, refused advice to lay off workers and instead directed the company to find an alternate means of bolstering revenue. The company began a marketing campaign promoting the candy bar as a protein-rich meal due to the peanuts it contained. Coupled with a new price of two bars for a nickel, reduced work hours and cancelled bonuses, The Hershey Company came out of the Depression in a strong position, and by 1936, profits had reached a level ten times that of the company payroll.[2]
Ingredient changes to reduce production costs
The formula was modified in 1995 to add more peanuts.
In 2008, Hershey replaced cocoa butter with cheaper oil substitutes. Hershey changed the description of the product and altered the packaging slightly along with the ingredients. Though the formula contained chocolate, according to United States Food and Drug Administration food labeling laws, these modified recipes that do not contain cocoa butter cannot be legally described as milk chocolate.[3]
By 2014, milk chocolate returned as the primary ingredient.[4]
In 2021 Mr. Goodbar is no longer milk chocolate, but "chocolate candy".
Cultural references
Looking for Mr. Goodbar was a novel by Judith Rossner, published in 1975 and adapted as a film in 1977. Lacey Fosburgh, appropriating Rossner's title, published Closing Time: The True Story of the "Goodbar" Murder, an "interpretive biography" of the real-life murder of Roseann Quinn, which had inspired Rossner's fiction.
References
- ^ "What the M's stand for in "M&Ms"". Vacca Foeda Media. Retrieved 19 October 2012.
- ^ "The Spoils of War". The Food That Built America.
- ^ Coffey, Laura T. (September 19, 2008). "Chocoholics sour on new Hershey's formula". Today. NBC News. Archived from the original on September 23, 2008. Retrieved January 16, 2010.
- ^ Mr. Goodbar product page Archived 16 March 2015.