Life Savers: 100+ Years of Sweetness
As an elementary school kid, I thought, "When I'm an adult, I want to have 1 of every flavor of Life Saver there is." Life Savers Virtual Museum & Blog is the outcome of that quirky wish!
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- Written by: Karen Smith-Will
- Parent Category: Research
- Category: Life Savers: 100+ Years of Sweetness
I have actually tried very hard to see whether Life Savers were sold around Europe (other than the UK). I may have screamed aloud when I finally found this ad from Italy. Thank you, Italy Magazine!
Now, for all of the other countries...
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- Written by: Karen Smith-Will
- Parent Category: Research
- Category: Life Savers: 100+ Years of Sweetness
Who handled Life Savers Marketing? At first, it was an in-house thing. After that, Life Savers seemed to acquire highly competitive companies to produce ever-more-complex brand decisions.
1913
Edward Noble made a number of the early marketing decisions after they acquired the product from Clarence Crane.
1919
Ayer (N W) Incorporated (N W Ayer Advertising Agency) https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/ac-component/sova-nmah-ac-0059-ref5145
2005 & earlier
Foote Cone & Belding https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/fcb-out-wrigleys-life-savers-goes-review-80792/
2005 & later
Omnicom Group’s BBDO, retrieved from Chicago https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/fcb-out-wrigleys-life-savers-goes-review-80792/2007 Energy BBDO, retrieved from https://adage.com/creativity/work/muffin-top/2833
https://adage.com/creativity/work/we-are-sweet/2834
2006
Wrigley's marketing issues with Life Savers, retrieved from https://adage.com/article/news/wrigley-ceo-cites-marketing-problems-altoids-life-savers/108412
2013
I. O. N. Advertising, retrieved from https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/lifesavers-ad-campaign/17968550
2022
Australia - TBWA\Sydney retrieved from https://campaignbrief.com/life-savers-provides-a-fun-escape-from-the-everyday-in-first-campaign-from-tbwasydney/
Life Savers™️ is a trademarked name currently owned in the US by Mars Wrigley Confectionery, having been owned and/or licensed by many previous companies, varying by country.
©️2024 to present. All rights reserved.
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- Written by: Karen Smith-Will
- Parent Category: Research
- Category: Life Savers: 100+ Years of Sweetness
Sometimes I forget that Life Savers were originally intended as a health product. But all it takes is a scan through the first couple of decades of Life Savers ads to see the score: Life Savers were a product of their (unregulated!) time. They were sold at pharmacies. They often included the herbal ingredients/ remedies already being sold there. In a time with quack remedies and little government oversight, anything goes.
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- Written by: Karen Smith-Will
- Parent Category: Research
- Category: Life Savers: 100+ Years of Sweetness
By researching news articles, advertisements, and ordering cards available to companies purchasing them, one can start to get a sense of the start and end dates for flavors. This would have been so much easier if the companies that made Life Savers had kept meticulous records! If those records are out there somewhere, please let me know.
1912 - 1 flavor
Peppermint
16 November 1916 - 3 flavors were available,
according to a magazine ad, Pep⭕mint, Lic⭕rice, Wint⭕green, Cl⭕ve.
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- Written by: Karen Smith-Will
- Parent Category: Research
- Category: Life Savers: 100+ Years of Sweetness
What is the difference amongst the various Licorice-like Life Savers? Why were they so popular in the early days yet nearly nonexistent in the last 50 years?
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- Written by: Karen Smith-Will
- Parent Category: Research
- Category: Life Savers: 100+ Years of Sweetness
Did you realize that there was a collaboration between Life Savers & clothing designer Kirkland Hall in the 1940s to 50s? You can just imagine a young housewife thinking, "This Cryst⭕Mint is so gorgeous, I'd like to have an outfit in this exact shade."
And don't you just want to find actual Life Savers flavors for each of these colors?! (Okay, maybe that part is just me...)
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- Written by: Karen Smith-Will
- Parent Category: Research
- Category: Life Savers: 100+ Years of Sweetness
Marketing was not Clarence Crane's thing.
But it was clearly Ed Noble's thing. Noble's first conversations with Crane were about taking Life Savers to the next level. As a personal customer, he thoughts the mints had potential.
But Crane knew his place: He was an idea generator--he was already ready to move on to the next thing. Even as someone new to the marketing world, Noble was a student of how to grow ideas.
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- Written by: Karen Smith-Will
- Parent Category: Research
- Category: Life Savers: 100+ Years of Sweetness
Because we have no specific documentation detailing everywhere Life Savers is or has been produced, it's still a surprise every time we find a new location. Puerto Rico is part of the United States; its Life Savers presence started prior by or before 1971. Imagine if Tropical Life Savers' pina colada, mango melon, banana & fruit punch were actually made in the Caribbean?!
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- Written by: Karen Smith-Will
- Parent Category: Research
- Category: Life Savers: 100+ Years of Sweetness
As you would imagine, recipes for famous products can never be shared...they are the "secret sauce" that provides a certain chunk of a company's valuation. Nonetheless, the US Food and Drug Administration requires ingredients to be posted on product labels--albeit, without proportions.
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- Written by: Karen Smith-Will
- Parent Category: Research
- Category: Life Savers: 100+ Years of Sweetness
1915: 6,725,000 packages (Modern)
1920: 68,000,000 packages (Modern)
1950: 6,000,000,000 (billion!) individual candies (hole-in-one)
1950: annually more than 70,000,000 rolls of plaintiff's Life Savers Assorted Mints are sold, to say nothing of many millions of packages of other flavors (justia.com)
1960s: 616 million packages per year
“The five-story structure had turned out as many as 616 million rolls of Life Savers a year during its peak period in the 1960’s, said Ray Sammarco, former plant manager. (Building)
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- Written by: Karen Smith-Will
- Parent Category: Research
- Category: Life Savers: 100+ Years of Sweetness
I have business expertise in corporate change, so this topic is fascinating. There were several reasons that Noble felt changes should be made to the product. (To what extent Allen is involved is hard to say, though he clearly would have wanted his investment to be successful.)
Read more: Differences between Crane's & Noble's Life Savers™️