Butterfinger

Butterfinger is the name of a candy bar made by Nestlé. It has a flaky, orange-colored center somewhat similar in texture and taste to peanut brittle (without the peanuts), that is coated in compound chocolate.

History

Butterfinger was invented by the Curtiss Candy Company of Chicago, Illinois in 1923. The company held a public contest to choose the name of the candy dress. The name is a slang term used to describe a clumsy person, often in sporting events to describe an athlete who can't hold onto the ball. As an early publicity stunt and marketing ploy, the company dropped Butterfinger and Baby Ruth candy bars from airplanes in cities across the United States which helped increase its popularity. The Butterfinger candy bar was later sold to Nabisco, and, in 1990, Nestlé bought Baby Ruth and Butterfinger from Nabisco.

Two of the slogans currently used to advertise the candy bar are "Follow the Finger" and "Break out of the ordinary!" Prior to these, Bart Simpson and other characters from "The Simpsons" appeared in numerous advertisements for the product from 1989 to 2001, with the slogans "Nobody better lay a finger on my Butterfinger!", "Bite my Butterfinger!", and "Nothin' like a Butterfinger!" However, following criticism of Butterfingers in season 13, episode 8 of the Simpsons "Sweets and Sour Marge", Butterfinger dropped the Simpsons as spokespersons.

On April 1, 2008 Nestlé launched an April Fools initiative indicating that they had changed the name of the candy bar to "The Finger", citing consumer research that indicated that the original brand was "clumsy" and "awkward", complete with a fake Web site cite web|url=http://www.thefingerbar.com/overview.aspx|title=The Finger Bar website|accessdate=2008-06-28] promoting the change and featuring a video press release. When the joke is revealed, the entire website changed into a flash animation redirecting to the Butterfinger Comedy Network. Butterfinger was withdrawn from the German market due to consumer rejection when it was one of the first products to be labeled as containing genetically modified ingredients from corn.cite web|url=http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,392276-3,00.html|title=What Can a Nation Do? Taming the Globalization Monster|last=Jung|first=Alexander|date=December 26, 2005|publisher=Spiegel Online|accessdate=2008-06-28] cite web|url=http://www.greenpeace.de/ueber_uns/mitmachen/jugend_ags/|title=Jugendliche bei Greenpeace|date=May 15, 2003|publisher=Greenpeace|language=German|accessdate=2008-06-28]

In recent years, Butterfinger bars have appeared in the United States that are printed with both English and Spanish language on the wrappers.fact|date=June 2008

Additional products

Besides the candy bar, there are other products currently available in the North American retail market:

* Butterfinger BB's are candy pieces. They are small and round, like BB's, hence the name.
* Butterfinger Crisp is a variant of Butterfinger, which consists of wafers and "Butterfinger Candy Creme".
* Butterfinger Stixx is a variant of Butterfinger, which consists of wafers and "Butterfinger Candy Creme".
* Butterfinger ice cream bars are surrounded by a milk chocolate coating with Butterfinger bits.
* Butterfinger ice cream nuggets are a frozen treat similar to "Butterfinger Ice Cream Bars", but in a ball-like form with ice cream. They have an orange-coloured, peanut butter-tasting ice cream centre.
*Butterfinger Hot Chocolate is a flavoured hot cocoa mix that bears a remarkable resemblance in taste to an actual Butterfinger candy bar.Fact|date=February 2007
* YoCrunch features yogurt with various candy toppings, including butterfinger pieces.
* Butterfinger Creme Pie released at Burger Kings for "The Simpsons Movie", a pie similar to the Hersheys Pie, but topped with Butterfinger pieces.
* Butterfinger Jingles are seasonal (Christmas), bell-shaped milk chocolate candies containing small pieces of "Butterfinger Candy Creme".

ee also

Similar products

* Hershey's 5th Avenue.
* Clark Bar from NECCO.
* Zagnut, a similar product that uses toasted coconut instead of Chocolate.
* Chick-O-Stick, same kind of product as Zagnut, yet rolled.
* KitKat Chunky Peanut Butter (available in the UK, Ireland and Australia).

References

External links

* [http://www.butterfinger.com/ Butterfinger website]