To celebrate the brand’s first 90ish years, Butterfinger has kicked off a 90-day countdown, where fans will have a chance to share favorite Butterfinger memories and find out about the anniversary program at Facebook.com/Butterfinger. Throughout the 90 days, Butterfinger will showcase some of its very best moments in history including vintage bar photos, popular ad campaigns, little known trivia, spokesperson spotlights and more.
“After 90ish years, Butterfinger continues to be a fan favorite with a rich history that is a part of every generation today,” said spokesperson Tricia Bowles of Nestlé USA, in a prepared statement. “And the 90-day countdown is just the beginning of our exciting celebration throughout the year, so stay tuned for more incredible announcements from Butterfinger.”
Butterfinger designated 2013 as a benchmark for its first 90ish years, as the candy bar originally invented by Chicago’s Curtiss Candy Co. was believed to have been promoted as early as 1923 (before it ultimately was sold to Nestlé in 1990). However, Butterfinger parent company Nestlé holds a trademark document from 1928, thus the 90ish reference around its anniversary, keeping in line with the brand’s irreverent sense of humor.
According to the release, since the 1920’s, when the term “Butterfinger” was used by sportscasters to describe athletes who were unable to hold onto a baseball or football, Butterfinger has become a beloved brand known for humor and a roster of memorably funny spokespersons, from Bart Simpson to Seth Green to Erik Estrada to Rob Lowe and Jaime Pressly, its most recent and first female spokesperson. A look at just the most recent years with Butterfinger illustrates the brand’s irreverent nature: counting down the end of the world or BARmageddon, with evidence such as the first-ever, square-shaped crop circle in Kansas, a Butterfinger comedy-horror movie called “Butterfinger the 13th,” the first interactive digital graphic novel by a candy brand starring the Butterfinger Defense League, and several attention-grabbing April Fool’s Day pranks, including the renaming of the candy bar to “The Finger.”
