Bring Back Penny Sweets!
BRING BACK PENNY SWEETS AND ‘DANDELION AND BURDOCK’ CALL NOSTALGIA CRAVING BRITS
- 22% of Brits want to put penny sweets back on the shelves
- Smith’s Salt and Shake crisps top the comeback list for men
- A quarter (25%) of over 55’s want to see a return of Spangles Sweets
Penny sweets and ‘Dandelion and Burdock’ soft drink have topped a poll of the food and drink people would most like to see revived. Friends Reunited asked Brits which food and drink products they miss the most from their past, either because it had completely disappeared, or was less available than it once was.
Chocolate, sweets and crisps feature heavily in the top foods the nation would like to make a comeback, with Fry’s Chocolate Cream, Caramac, Smith’s ‘Salt and Shake’ and Lion Bars featuring in the top five, along with penny sweets.
Dr Christy Fergusson PhD, food psychologist, said:
“We all enjoy looking back and reminiscing about our childhood, and the food and drinks that we enjoyed when we were young often trigger powerful memories of the happy times we experienced growing up. A simple sight or smell is all the subconscious mind needs to transport us back to another time. It is hardly surprising that the sweets and drinks we loved so much as children are the ones that we want to enjoy again.”
Top Foods
- Penny sweets - 22%
- Fry’s Chocolate Cream - 21%
- Caramac - 20%
- Smiths Salt & Shake crisps - 19%
- Lion Bars - 18%
- Spangles - 17%
- Opal Fruits - 16%
- Pear Drops - 16%
- Sherbet Fountains - 15%
- Wagon Wheels - 13%
- Marathon Bars - 10%
Top Drinks
- Dandelion and Burdock - 19%
- Cream soda - 16%
- Ginger beer - 14%
- Tizer - 12%
- American Cream Soda - 12%
- Lilt - 11%
- Vimto - 11%
- Cherry Coke / Pepsi / Cherryade - 9%
- Irn Bru - 9%
- Babycham - 8%
- Sarsparilla - 7%
Women sweeter than men
It seems women have a sweeter tooth than men. Women’s number one favourite food to bring back is penny sweets (27%), whereas only 16% of men rallied for their revival. Men on the other hand have a savory favourite, as Smith’s Salt and Shake crisps – ‘the ones with the little blue bag’, takes the top spot with almost a fifth of men (19%) wanting to see their return.
A taste of history
There is a big difference in the foods we want to bring back depending on our age; most likely as we remember the foods of our era. Those aged over 55 have a clear favourite with Fry’s Chocolate Cream (31%) followed by Smith’s Salt and Shake crisps (26%). A quarter (25%) of over 55’s also want see a return of Spangles Sweets - the squared, translucent boiled sweets which were produced in a variety of flavours by Mars from the 1950s, and were last sold more than 20 years ago. The younger generation (18-35) in comparison want the cheap penny sweets to return the most (35%), compared to just 11% of those over 55.
Lion Bars are the second most yearned after food for those aged 18-34, followed by Nerds, the US form of candy currently sold by Nestlé under their Willy Wonka Candy Company brand, which only made an appearance in the top ten of those aged 18- 34, with a fifth (20%) calling for their comeback.
Age affects our tipple
Those aged 18 – 34 have different liquid refreshment requirements than their elders, with Lilt being their number one choice of drinks to bring back, followed by Cherry Coke/Pepsi / Cherryade (18%). Um Bongo (15%), Mountain Dew (14%) and Panda Pop (12%) all make an appearance in their top 10, unlike the overall UKs top 10, where none of these feature.
Regional remedies
There’s a big regional split in the sorts of drinks we would like to see make a comeback. A third of those in the North East (33%) would like to see Dandelion and Burdock return to the shelves, whereas just 11% of Londoners agree. It is no surprise 30% of Scots would like to see the return of Creamola Foam, the soft drink manufactured in Glasgow and sold mainly in Scotland from the 1950s until Nestlé ended production in October 1998. Nearly a fifth (18%) of those in the North West would like to bring back Sarsparilla, the original soft root beer drink, compared to just 4% in the South East and 4% in the South West.
Heather Jones, Senior Brand Manager at Ben Shaws® Traditional Soft Drinks, said:
“Dandelion and Burdock was introduced as one of four traditional flavours to the Ben Shaws range shortly after the brand launched back in 1871. Over its 140 year history, the unique flavour has continued to be one of our most well-loved drinks. Having been enjoyed by generations of Brits, we believe it’s truly earned its place as the number one flavour in the nostalgic taste polls and we’re delighted to see the nation agrees.”
Matt Bushby, Head of Friends Reunited, added:
“The public is used to brands launching products all the time, but there is a continuing sense of nostalgia for things that seem to have been superseded by something else or simply taken off the shelf. We have recently been seeing the return of many retro foods and drinks and we’d love our members to start campaigning for those they’d most like to see return.
“The new Friends Reunited site helps people celebrate the things we loved doing as children – it’s the one place you can search, collect and save the bigger, more important moments in our lives, but also the smaller things like our old favourite childhood sweets and drinks, which trigger that nostalgic feeling of happiness.”
ENDS
*Opinium Research carried out an online survey of 2,005 UK adults aged 18+ from 27th to 30th April 2012. Results have been weighted to nationally representative criteria. Respondents in an earlier survey (24th to 26th April) were asked open text questions on this topic and the most popular answers were used to create answer options for the follow-up quantitative study
Male Food: Smiths Salt and Shake crisps - 19% Fry’s chocolate cream - 19% Lion Bars - 19% Caramac - 17% Spangles -18% Opal Fruits -18% Penny sweets -16% Pear Drops -15% Wagon Wheels -15% Sherbet Fountains -12% Marathon bars -11%
Female Food: Penny sweets -27% Fry’s chocolate cream -23% Caramac - 23% Smiths Salt and Shake crisps -19% Lion Bars -16% Spangles -17% Opal Fruits - 15% Pear Drops -17% Sherbet Fountains -18% Wagon Wheels -11% Potato puffs -10%
Drinks Ages 18 – 34 Lilt -20% Cherry Coke / Pepsi / Cherryade -18% Dandelion and Burdock -16% Vimto -16% Um Bongo - 15% Cream Soda -14% Irn Bru - 14% Mountain Dew - 14% Panda Pop - 12% Vanilla Coke -12%
For further information, please contact:
Lisa Elliott / Jemma Green- Lansons Communications
lisae@lansons.com / jemmag@lansons.com
Direct dial: +44 (0)207 294 3679 / 3642
Carolynne Bull-Edwards brightsolid
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About brightsolid
brightsolid began life in 1995 as Scotland Online. It now has two divisions; brightsolid online publishing and brightsolid online technology. brightsolid online technology is a leading UK independent provider of online IT business services. brightsolid online publishing has a number of innovative online businesses around people and places including Friends Reunited and leading family history brands Genes Reunited, ScotlandsPeople and the findmypast global network.
The family history sites deliver access to over a billion records dating as far back as 1200. Family historians can search for their ancestors among global collections, relating primarily to people with UK and Irish ancestry, of military records, census, migration, occupation directories, and current electoral roll data, as well as birth, marriage and death records.
brightsolid was awarded The National Archives’ contract to digitize and publish online the 1911 census for England and Wales, which it launched in January 2009. Most recently, in November 2011, the online innovation group launched the British Newspaper Archive in partnership with the British Library, to digitize up to 40 million pages of historic newspapers over the next 10 years, providing a unique insight into major events and key periods of historical international interest.
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About Friends Reunited
Friends Reunited is the original social network with over 24 million members. Launched in 2000 as a back-bedroom hobby to put old school friends back in touch, it swiftly became a British media phenomenon. Today, the site has evolved to celebrate every blast from the past, becoming a central part of the brightsolid mission to safeguard the nation’s history.
