What The Snickers Candy Bar Wrapper Looked Like In The '30s

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Since the 1960s, Snickers has lured candy lovers in with its unmistakable dark brown wrapper, bold blue letters set against a white square. However, the candy bar didn't always have a sleek, modern design. When the Mars company introduced it in 1930 for 5 cents, Snickers had a softer, more whimsical design. The 1930-era wrapper featured an illustration of the candy bar front and center, on orange-and-white paper. "Quality That You Can Taste" was printed across the bottom, touting the brand's original slogan. On the flip side, the design featured an illustration of a woman lying on her stomach enjoying a Snickers bar with a beach in the background. 

The bars were delivered to retailers in a box of 24 in more illustrated packaging. Bulk packaging featured an illustration of Mars' Spanish-style Chicago candy factory on the front, and pictures of workers showing how Snickers is made on the back. Collectors can still snag vintage boxes for sale on eBay.

Interestingly, the Snickers bar was named after a horse. After the success of the company's Milky Way Bar, introduced in 1923, founder Frank Mars bought a 2,800-acre farm in Tennessee in the '30s, called Milky Way Farms, which bred cattle and champion racehorses. Mars named the Snickers candy bar after a favorite horse, which passed away a few months before the candy bar launched.

Like many major candy bars, including Hershey's, the Snickers wrapper has changed quite a bit over the years. Mars kept the orange-and-white wrapper showcasing the candy bar until 1939, when it introduced the first "Snickers" logo. The wrapper had a star symbol and capitalized letters. In 1968, the logo that we all recognize today was introduced. A few tweaks have been made over the years, but the same bold, sleek logo has been in place since 2005. Many versions have also spun off from the original, including a fun-sized bar introduced in 1968, an ice cream bar in the '80s, and a variety of flavors such as peanut butter, pumpkin, white chocolate, and almond.

The horse Snickers is named after must have been lucky, because as of 2025, the treat made with nougat, caramel, and peanuts and coated in chocolate is the world's best-selling candy bar, with over $380 million in annual sales. It's sold in over 70 countries, and more than 15 million of them are sold every day. Honoring its history, the company used a horse in its 2017 Super Bowl commercial. It's just too bad its namesake was never featured on the wrapper.