Wednesday, September 19, 2001

Favorite candy takes 'hole' new approach

"Hole-d" everything!!!

For the first time since 1912, America's favorite hard candy will be made whole. Beginning this August, more than one million candy pieces will go holeless as part of the Life Savers "Win The Hole Thing" sweepstakes. These lucky Life Savers are winning game pieces in the national promotion, but they won't be hole-d up for long.

According to the "HOLE Truth Survey" (a national consumer poll of more than 1,500 people conducted by noted research firm, International Consumer Research, and commissioned by Life Savers), the hole is quite popular among Life Savers loyalists.

In fact, when asked, nearly two-thirds of consumers claim they would rather keep the hole than have more candy. Of those who hold the hole in highest regard, 40 percent argue that the hole is what makes a Life Savers what it is and 36 percent cite tradition as the reason for hole preservation.

Further research revealed that nearly 10 percent of respondents enjoy sticking their tongue in the hole and claim the design is what makes a Life Savers candy so much fun to eat.

Pep-O-Mint, born in 1912, was the first Life Savers to ever feature a hole. Boiled drops, first called Life Savers Fruit Drops, were introduced in 1924. The flavors included Lemon, Lime, Orange and Assorted.

It was not until 1929 that technology was developed for the production of boiled drops to have a hole.

The national promotion features a whole lot of Life Savers sans hole (1,000,006 to be exact). Lucky consumers who find the complete candy "Win The Hole Thing"the prize depicted inside the candy's filled in hole.

There are five grand prize instant win game pieces redeemable for a Volkswagen New Beetle GLX 1.8T, and 1,000,001 first prize game pieces good for Who Wants To Be A Millionaire CD-ROM Games.

Grand prize winners will find a winning certificate along with their candy.

To play, look for specially marked rolls and bags of Life Savers while supplies last. Instant win game pieces can be found in random packages emblazoned with the "Win The Hole Thing" promotional logo.

Contest open to legal U.S. residents. No purchase is necessary to play.

Delicious Data

· On average, 54 miles of Life Savers roll candy is produced in one year. That's enough candy to stretch from New York to Los Angeles nearly ten times.

· Approximately 100 rolls of Life Savers are produced each minute. That's more than 200 million rolls of Life Savers every year.

· More than 46 billion Life Savers are produced each year, weighing in at 57.5 million pounds.

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