Pacers (confectionery)

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"Pacers" mint and packaging as seen in 1981 television advertisement

Pacers is a discontinued British brand of mint flavoured confection, manufactured by Mars.[1]

Originally known as Opal Mints,[2] they were plain white coloured chewy spearmint flavoured sweets, launched as a sister product to Opal Fruits (now known as Starburst). The product was subsequently relaunched as Pacers around 1976, and later, three green peppermint stripes were added to the sweet,[3] possibly to align it with a similar American product of the same name.[4] Television commercials for the sweet alluded to sport and fitness, with participants wearing green and white-striped kit, featuring the slogan "Peppermint striped for two-mint freshness".[4] The brand was discontinued in 1985.

At one point the Glasgow Celtic football team were nicknamed "The Pacers" because of the similarity of their kit to the sweets.[5]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Hyslop, Leah (October 28, 2014). "Seven lost British sweets we pray will come back". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on July 14, 2019. Retrieved July 14, 2019.
  2. ^ Berry, Steve; Norman, Phil (2014). A History of Sweets in 50 Wrappers. London: The Friday Project. p. 69. ISBN 9780007575480.
  3. ^ "Pacers". Child of the 1980s. Archived from the original on 20 August 2012. Retrieved 11 March 2012.
  4. ^ a b Berry, Steve & Norman, Phil. The Great British Tuck Shop, Friday Books, 2012. pp.230–31
  5. ^ "Remembering retro sweets". What Britain Loves. Archived from the original on 16 March 2012. Retrieved 11 March 2012.