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Revision as of 00:41, 5 December 2005
Nestlé Smarties are a colourful sugar-coated chocolate confectionery popular in the United Kingdom, South Africa, Canada and Australia. They are similar to M&Ms produced by Mars.
Geometrically speaking, Smarties are oblate spheroids with a minor axis of about 5 mm and a major axis of about 12 mm. They come in eight colours: red, orange, yellow, green, mauve, pink, brown and blue. The orange Smarties are distinguished by containing orange-flavoured chocolate in the UK market only.
Within the UK, Smarties are typically sold in cardboard tubes, capped with a colourful lid usually having a letter of the alphabet on it. In February 2005, it was announced that the traditional cylindrical tube was to be replaced with a new six-sided "Hexatube" packaging in the summer. Nestlé have stated that the redesign is in order to keep the brand interesting and fresh to children. The last 100 tubes to leave the factory in York have a certificate inside them.
Smarties were introduced in 1937 as "Chocolate Beans" by Rowntrees of York and renamed as Smarties in the following year. They became known as "Nestlé Smarties" in 1993, five years after the company Rowntree Mackintosh was acquired by Nestlé. Smarties are still manufactured in York.
The current Smarties slogan is "Only Smarties have the answer", used since the early 1980s; however, the previous slogan, "Do you eat the red ones last?", has still been used afterwards. In the 1960s, the phrase "Buy some for Lulu" was sung schoolyard-style (i.e. in the fashion of nyah-nah-nah nah-nah) as a tagline in commercials. This was before the rise of the singer Lulu.
Mid-1980s television commercials for Smarties were notable for their advanced use of computer-generated imagery, produced by the advertising agency Lambie-Nairn. [1]
In the original range of colours, there was a light-brown Smartie. This was replaced in 1989 with the blue Smartie. Before 1958, the dark-brown Smarties had a plain-chocolate centre, while the light-brown one tasted of coffee. In 1997 larger-sized Giant Smarties were introduced, and, in 2004, Fruity Smarties.
In 2005, 570,000 tubes of Smarties were being manufactured each day, with an average of 48 to a tube. In the UK, an average of 307 tubes are consumed every minute. Over the last 25 years, Nestle has manufactured five billion Smarties lids. Some lids are very rare and are now regarded as collectors' items. Sales of Smarties are worth £73 million each year.
On 25 October, 2003, Kathryn Ratcliffe set a Guinness World Record by eating 138 Smarties in three minutes using chopsticks.
In Canada, Smarties are traditionally all the same chocolate flavour inside, although recent marketing trials have included boxes of flavoured candy. Some flavours include Sundae and Orange. Smarties in Canada are usually sold in either a plastic bag or a rectangular cardboard box.
Smarties Song
When you eat your Smarties,
Do you eat the red ones last?
Do you suck them very slowly,
Or crunch them very fast?
Eat that candy-coated chocolate,
But tell me when I ask,
When you eat your Smarties,
Do you eat the red ones last?
(repeat Allegro)