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Milky Way’s history can be traced to when Franklin Clarence Mars moved his struggling candy businesses to Minneapolis in 1920.
Three years later in 1923 he would invent the Milky Way bar, transforming his small candy business into a global candy powerhouse.
Frank Mars created the first Milky Way bar after a conversation with his son Forrest at a diner about turning malted milkshakes into candy.
Mars produced the first Milky Way bars in a Washington Avenue warehouse known as the “Nougat House.
The chocolate bar featured a creamy nougat made of whipped egg whites, sugar syrup, and malt flavoring.
He used Hershey’s milk chocolate to coat the bar.
The Milky Way candy bar was introduced nationally in 1924.
The bar’s first year of sales reached $800,000 (equivalent to $14 million in today’s dollars).
It was a grand slam from the beginning.
On March 10, 1925, Mars registered the Milky Way trademark in the United States, they claimed a first-use date from 1922.
In 1926, Mars introduced two Milky Way variants:
The company sold them in the same package for five cents each.
The chocolate nougat with milk chocolate coating became the standard Milky Way bar.
The vanilla nougat with dark chocolate coating version was later rebranded as “Forever Yours” in 1936—then “Milky Way Dark” in 1989—and finally “Milky Way Midnight” in 2000.
In 1932, Frank Mars gave his son Forrest $50,000 and the foreign rights to the Milky Way.
Forrest moved to London, where he introduced Mars Bar, which is basically the Milky Way under a different name.
In 1935, Milky Way launched its iconic slogan, “The sweet you can eat between meals without ruining your appetite,” which helped establish the brand’s identity.
The slogan remained in use till the late 90s.
Internationally, the Mars Bar was renamed to the Milky Way in the UK.
Mars made a significant product change in 1936—splitting their original Milky Way bar into two distinct offerings.
They spit the chocolate and vanilla versions that had previously been sold together.
The vanilla-flavored nougat version with dark chocolate coating was rebranded as “Forever Yours,” while the chocolate nougat version retained the original Milky Way name.
The “Red Car and Blue Car” advertisement for Milky Way chocolate bar debuted in the UK in 1989, featuring an animated race between a red 1951 Buick Roadmaster and a blue 1959 Cadillac traveling from Lunchville to Dinnertown.
It is remembered for its catchy jingle written by Rogers Rex and Sealey.
Bob Saker would sing the lyrics.
The commercial showed a Red Car consuming everything in its path while Blue Car sensibly ate only a Milky Way bar, leading to Blue Car’s success in crossing a collapsed bridge while the overstuffed Red Car plummeted to its doom.
The ad ended with the words “won’t spoil your appetite.”
In 1993, the UK version of Milky Way adopted a new slogan, “So light it won’t ruin your appetite,” in response to health concerns about encouraging children to eat sweets between meals.
That same year, the global version of the Milky Way bar changed the chocolate-flavored center with a vanilla flavor.
Australia was the only country that retained the original chocolate version.
The Milky Way Crispy Roll, a chocolate bar featuring crunchy biscuit wafer coated in Milky Way cream and milk chocolate, was launched by Mars Inc. in Germany in 1994.
It was later introduced to the UK in 1996.
The Crispy Roll had a good run but was discontinued in 2022 despite protests from fans.
The Milky Way chocolate bar shifted its marketing strategy in 2006 by adopting the slogan “Comfort in every bar” in the United States—emphasizing emotional satisfaction in comfort food before later changing to “Life’s Better the Milky Way”.
In 2010, Mars introduced the Milky Way Simply Caramel bar, a nougat-free candy bar consisting of caramel in milk chocolate.
It was discontinued in November of 2023.
The “Sorry, I Was Eating a Milky Way” ad, launched by DDB Chicago, became an immediate success and award-winning ad.
The advertisement humorously portrayed the candy bar as an irresistible distraction.
It had fun scenarios of professionals making mistakes while enjoying their Milky Way bars.
In the late summer of 2018, Mars introduced Milky Way Fudge nationwide.
It was made of chocolate fudge nougat in place of the traditional malt.
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