Pacers is a discontinued British brand of mint flavoured confection, manufactured by Mars.[2]
Originally known as "Opal Mints",[3] they were plain white coloured chewy spearmint flavoured sweets, launched as a sister product to Opal Fruits (now known as Starburst). The product was subsequently relaunched as Pacers around 1976, and later, three green peppermint stripes were added to the sweet,[4] possibly to align it with a similar American product of the same name.[5] Television commercials for the sweet alluded to sport and fitness, with participants wearing green and white-striped kit, featuring the slogan "Peppermint striped for two-mint freshness".[5] The brand was discontinued in 1985.
At one point the Glasgow Celtic football team were nicknamed "The Pacers" because of the similarity of their kit to the sweets.[6]
References
- 17 long-gone retro snacks you may have forgotten about By Carmella de Lucia. 29 MAR 2016^
- Leah Hyslop. Seven lost British sweets we pray will come back The Telegraph, October 28, 2014, retrieved July 14, 2019^
- Steve Berry, Phil Norman. A History of Sweets in 50 Wrappers The Friday Project, 2014^
- Pacers Child of the 1980s, retrieved 11 March 2012^
- Berry, Steve & Norman, Phil. The Great British Tuck Shop, Friday Books, 2012. pp.230–31^
- Remembering retro sweets What Britain Loves, retrieved 11 March 2012^