With Halloween coming soon, that means only one thing really: candy.
Anyone who trick-or-treated as a child knows that there's always one or two houses that dish out some obscure candy. So, as we did last year, between now and October 31st, we'll take quick looks at obscure candies (and some popular ones as well), just so you know what exactly you're getting yourself into.
Today: Take 5
What it's made of: The entire contents of the kitchen cabinet of my inner 14-year old: pretzels, caramel, peanuts, peanut butter, and chocolate.
Who owns it: The Hershey Company
Background: A relative baby on the candy front, Hershey's first released the candy in December of 2004. The name refers to the five main ingredients in the product, while it implies to take a five minute break to eat it. This is a disappointment to the three remaining jazz aficionados in the world who thought it was a shoutout to Dave Brubeck's famous "Take Five":
Sorry, Dave.
Hershey's never invested much marketing into the bar, and by 2011 it ceased all promotion for the candy, although the company still manufactured it. Things didn't bode so well for the Canadian equivalent, Max 5 (a name that implied absolutely nothing), which Hershey's discontinued making.
Advertising in the early 2000s, like the following, might explain why no one wanted to eat it:
No, absolutely none of that was supposed to make sense, so you're okay.
That said, through no reasoning whatsoever, sales increased once marketing stopped--increases to the tune of 10% per year over the past few years. Hershey's suddenly decided to redouble its marketing efforts, and in early 2016 started to re-brand the candy bar. The packaging, which used to be a combination of red, white, yellow, and desperation, was changed to a wrapper showcasing the ingredients, a black background, and a bold hyperactive lime green logo.
Marketing heavily focused on Millennials. Take 5 brand manager Chris Kinnard said in a statement. "They’re flavor explorers and adventurous when it comes to food."
Yes--those "flavor explorers." The Marco Polos of the modern food age.
Take 5 is the little runt that marketers swear can be THE GREATEST CANDY BAR IN THE WORLD. Christopher Steiner wrote in a 2013 Forbes article that the Take 5 candy bar was possibly the most undervalued brand in the world. "We’re convinced that, with the right shepherding, the Take 5 could propel Hershey to become utterly dominant in its industry in the way that Apple has taken a demonstrative lead in consumer devices," Steiner wrote.
Suck it, Snickers!
But wait! There's more!
"Many organizations fail to effectively put themselves in the minds of their customers and it would seem Hershey has drastically undervalued the reality that Take 5 bars are delicious, nutritious, sumptuous and scrumptious," said Aaron Perlut, founding partner of digital marketing and PR firm Elasticity.
Nutritious! Sumptuous! Has a candy bar ever qualified as either? Never!
But this is why God created marketers.
What it tastes like: A sumptuous journey bathed in the tears of Millennials.
Halloween Trick-or-Treat Grade: A+
In thirty years it'll be the candy your grandchildren are addicted to.
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