The Old-School Nestle Chocolate Bar That Was Originally Marketed Towards Men - Tasting Table

"Nestlé acquired the Lion bar from the Rowntree company, which had introduced it in the late 1970s. Back then, and up until the early 1980s, the chocolate bar was advertised with an actual lion. Commercials included a short clip of a growling, male lion stalking through grass and pouncing. It seemed appropriate given the name, though it was a little unusual to advertise chocolate that way. Lions and candy have little in common, after all."

"After Nestlé took over in 1988, the company decided to head in a different direction with their advertisements. Commercials from the early to mid-1990s intercut jungle scenes of lions with men in the urban jungle of a city. These commercials featured plenty of not-so-subtle imagery of attractive women, sometimes in animal print, with a man watching them and then hungrily eating his Lion bar, drawing a parallel between a lion devouring prey and a man consuming the chocolate."

"In 2004, there was a major rebrand for Lion bars, which came on the heels of several earlier launches in the U.K. and elsewhere in Europe. It seemed like Nestlé could never decide how much chocolate or caramel was necessary to keep fans interested. But this change-up was the most extensive one. The bar was made lighter and the chocolate more milky, while the crispy parts were also scaled back."

Nestlé acquired the Lion bar from Rowntree, originally introduced in the late 1970s, and early ads featured an actual growling male lion. After Nestlé took over in 1988, advertising shifted in the early to mid-1990s to intercut jungle lion scenes with men in an urban jungle, using imagery of attractive women and a man hungrily eating the bar to evoke a lion devouring prey. Marketing targeted male consumers and framed the product as masculine. A 2004 rebrand lightened the bar, made the chocolate milkier, and scaled back the crispy elements after several earlier U.K. and European launches.

Read at Tasting Table