A Peter Paul Halloween Newspaper Coupon from 1978!

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Today I’m coming at the idea of Halloween candy and candy marketing a little sideways.   Rather than feature vintage packaging created specifically for the holiday, I’m going to showcase how Halloween has been used to promote all-year round versions of popular treats, which also allows me to feature those treats and a specific slice of our shared confectionery-past.

So make the jump to see what I’ve assembled around a Peter Paul Halloween newspaper coupon from 1978!

Newspaper coupons – in the day and age of smartphones and online shopping, they’ve become a bit antiquated.  But they’re also charming and hearken back to a time, not-that-long-ago, when folks would routinely clip these black-and-white coupons from the pages of their daily papers.

As a candy collector and historian, vintage clipped newspaper coupons can be especially fun to uncover as they not only reflect a simpler time in consumer marketing but they can also reveal previously unknown brands and promotions.

The coupon I’ll be sharing today doesn’t reveal anything particularly startling or previously unknown, though I still dig it.  I find its appeal to be that it’s a simple newspaper-clipped coupon promoting the all-year-round Peter Paul line, but using the then-upcoming Halloween holiday to do so.  Other than its general Halloween-ness, the biggest thing of note is that the clipping highlights that these five Peter Paul offerings contained “No Artificial Ingredients” in them.  Even as far back as 1978, people had started to concern themselves with such things.  Here it is:

Peter Paul Halloween newspaper 25-cent 15-cent off coupon - October 1978

Peter Paul Halloween newspaper 25-cent 15-cent off coupon – October 1978

Check out that dual-coupon design – it would appear that you could clip this for 15-cents off a multi-pack or 25-cents off a bag of snack-size minis, but you couldn’t clip both coupons, due to the crossover layout.  I think that’s a clever design and a great use of ad-space at the time.

When deciding to post this Halloween newspaper clipping, I pondered what else I might include to show along with it.  Since this is a Halloween ad/coupon promoting the all-year-round versions of Peter Paul’s bar lineup, I decided it was the perfect opportunity to showcase a set of wrappers from the same era.

[Historical note: The Peter Paul brands were acquired by Hershey back in 1988 – yet even today, twenty-six years after they became a part of Hershey’s portfolio, the Peter Paul brand name lives on.  It would seem that the Hershey company saw the strength in the Peter Paul parent brand name (rather than just the brand names of the bars themselves) when they bought them.  I think it’s a lovely testament to the strength of the classic Peter Paul name and Hershey’s marketing savvy that they continue to capitalize on it nearly three decades on.]

I gathered together a “complete set” of wrappers to match the five bars the illustrated Jack-O-Lantern character is holding in the ad – and I was able to match them by the fact that they all have 20-cent printed-on-the-pack price tags.  While the ad is from Halloween 1978, these 20-cent wrappers were probably found on shelves a tad earlier – in 1976-1977, though many of them were still being sold with these same wrappers in 1978.  Here they are!

Peter Paul - Almond Joy - 20-cent chocolate candy bar wrapper - 1977-1978

Peter Paul – Almond Joy – 20-cent chocolate candy bar wrapper – 1977-1978

Peter Paul - Dark Chocolate Mounds - 20-cent chocolate candy bar wrapper - 1977-1978

Peter Paul – Dark Chocolate Mounds – 20-cent chocolate candy bar wrapper – 1977-1978

Peter Paul - Milk Chocolate Mounds - 20-cent chocolate candy bar wrapper - 1977-1978

Peter Paul – Milk Chocolate Mounds – 20-cent chocolate candy bar wrapper – 1977-1978

Peter Paul - York Peppermint Pattie - 20-cent chocolate candy bar wrapper - 1977-1978

Peter Paul – York Peppermint Pattie – 20-cent chocolate candy bar wrapper – 1977-1978

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And finally, here’s a large multi-pack bag from the same era:

Peter Paul - Mounds Dark Chocolate - 3_4 pound bite size multi-package - 1978

Peter Paul – Mounds Dark Chocolate – 3/4 pound bite size multi-package – 1978

I think today’s Halloween newspaper clipping served as a great portal with which to visit the Peter Paul lineup of the late 1970’s.  And for me it invokes the always-happy thought of the houses who would give out full-size candy bars to lucky Trick-or-Treaters on Halloween.  Full-size bars on Halloween – I didn’t see too many of those as a kid.  They were near-mythical.

And that’s everything for today’s post.  See you next time!

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Today’s post has been part of CollectingCandy.com’s 2014 Countdown to Halloween. To check out other sites celebrating Halloween all month long, visit the official CountdownToHalloween site.  For more of CollectingCandy.com’s CountdownToHalloween posts, just click here.

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About Jason Liebig

A New York City based writer, editor and sometimes actor. After spending much of the 1990′s in the comic book business helping tell the stories of Marvel Comics’ X-Men as series editor, he has since split his time between developing his own entertainment properties while still consulting and working on others. Having been described as “the Indiana Jones of lost and forgotten candy”, Jason is one of the country’s premier candy collectors and historians with his discoveries appearing in countless blogs, magazines, newspaper articles, and books. Always happy to share his knowledge and unique perspectives on this colorful part of our popular culture, Jason has consulted with New York’s Museum of Food and Drink and has also been a featured guest on Food Network’s Heavyweights, France’s M6 Capital, and New York’s TheActionRoom.com. My Google Profile+
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5 Responses to A Peter Paul Halloween Newspaper Coupon from 1978!

  1. Matthew says:

    Ah, this was after Peter Paul dropped the “No Jelly” name. Am I correct in saying that when Hershey bought the Peter Paul brands from Cadbury in 1988 that this was when the “Peanut Butter” bar was dropped – after all they already owned Reese.

    • Jason Liebig says:

      Matthew,

      Actually, I have found no evidence that the Peter Paul Peanut Butter bar lasted nearly that long. The latest wrapper I have for the bar dates to 1979 and the Peanut Butter bar doesn’t show up in any Peter Paul ads I have from the 1980’s. So, my educated guess is that it was discontinued around 1980 – eight years before the Hershey acquisition. -J

  2. Darryl Heine says:

    Did Peter Paul still make Power House candy bars at the time? Same for the Caravelle candy bar?

  3. I barely remember the Peter Paul Peanut Butter bar so after a quick YouTube search I found THIS commercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Cm08HJBf8E
    … which–tying into the Halloween theme of your post— stars none other than Mr. Vincent Price.
    Enjoy!

    Great post!

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