Pacers (confectionery)

"Pacers" mint and packaging as seen in 1981 television advertisement

Pacers is a discontinued British brand of mint flavoured confection, manufactured by Mars.^[1]

Originally known as Opal Mints,^[2] 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,^[3] possibly to align it with a similar American product of the same name.^[4] 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".^[4] 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.^[5]

See also

• List of confectionery brands

References

1. Hyslop, Leah (October 28, 2014). "Seven lost British sweets we pray will come back". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on July 14, 2019. Retrieved July 14, 2019.
2. Berry, Steve; Norman, Phil (2014). A History of Sweets in 50 Wrappers. London: The Friday Project. p. 69. ISBN 9780007575480.
3. "Pacers". Child of the 1980s. Archived from the original on 20 August 2012. Retrieved 11 March 2012.
4. Berry, Steve & Norman, Phil. The Great British Tuck Shop, Friday Books, 2012. pp.230–31
5. "Remembering retro sweets". What Britain Loves. Archived from the original on 16 March 2012. Retrieved 11 March 2012.