Summit Cookie Bars

Summit was a candy bar manufactured in the early 1980s by Mars in the United States. Labeled "cookie bars" on the packaging,^[1] but "candy bars" in some advertising,^[2] they consisted of two wafers covered with peanuts, all coated in chocolate.

In 1983, Mars changed to individual foil wrapping and promoted the bar as having 30% more chocolate.^[3] Consumer panelists said the modifications were more gimmicky than substantive.^[3] The new bar was longer, thinner, and firmer, and received mediocre reviews.^[3] Keeping the bar from melting was noted as a problem.^[3] Despite an ambitious marketing effort toward the Black population in the United States (including a partnership with Kentucky Fried Chicken as well as lobbying to make Summit bars eligible for purchase via EBT cards), sales remained flat. Production of the bar was halted and it is no longer available.^[4][5]

References

1. "From the Candy Aisle: Summit Bars". Gone But Not Forgotten. October 2, 2012.
2. "1982 Summit TV Commercial". YouTube. Archived from the original on 2018-12-05.
3. Gina White Summit Bar from Mars good but not out of this world October 12, 1983 Wilmington Morning Star
4. "One of the few truly new products Mars introduced was the Summit bar, a wafer and chocolate candy bar meant to ... ..." Brenner, Joël Glenn (2000). The Emperors of Chocolate: Inside the Secret World of Hershey and Mars. Random House, Inc. p. 280. ISBN 0-7679-0457-5.
5. "For example, Mars killed its Summit bar even though sales reportedly..." Linneman, Robert E.; Stanton, John L. (1991). Making Niche Marketing Work: How to Grow Bigger By Acting Smaller. McGraw-Hill. p. 124. ISBN 0-07-037954-8.