Monday, August 12, 2013

Saturday Morning's Forgotten Heroes: Remember Marathon John? (1973)

M & M Mars introduced the Marathon candy in 1973 with an interesting ad campaign starring a hero named Marathon John, portrayed by actor Patrick Wayne. Unfortunately, the product didn't last long, as for all intents & purposes it was Mars' answer to the longer-running, more established Bit O'Honey.

Here's Marathon John vs. Quick Claude.



A few years later, Mars would revive the Marathon name, but as an standard size candy bar, billed as an energy bar as part of the Snickers brand. Unfortunately, that, too, did a quick fade. Sometimes, things just ain't meant to be.

2 comments:

magicdog said...

Whoa! I do remember this commercial - didn't realize it was Patrick Wayne as Marathon John!

I used to like Marathon bars because they were so much bigger than the usual candy bar! You felt like you got the most of your money.

It's PC sickness that one makes candy bars into pseudo energy bars!

hobbyfan said...

As I understand it, Mars noticed they had a brand name that they needed to renew the copyright on, so they revived Marathon, but not in the same shape as it originally was 30+ years earlier.

Since it was sold in the pharmacy section of some stores, that may have hurt sales on the revival.