OVERVIEW OF THE THE CRISP YOU CAN’T RESIST! CAMPAIGN

Hershey supported the launch of ReeseSticks wafer bars with a campaign that emphasized the product’s connection to its predecessor, the popular Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. ReeseSticks had a different texture and taste because they contained crisp wafers in addition to the creamy peanut butter and milk chocolate found in peanut butter cups. A television commercial featured a round peanut butter cup in the form of a buzzsaw, cutting a wafer in half and covering it with chocolate and peanut butter. An advertisement in Reader’s Digest in May 1998 simply showed two Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups above the word ‘‘original’’ and two ReeseSticks above the words ‘‘new extra crispy.’’ One of the ReeseSticks was broken apart to reveal that it contained layers of peanut butter between wafers, all coated in milk chocolate. The tag line ‘‘The Crisp You Can’t Resist!’’ was centered below a picture of the new product in the trademark orange Reese’s wrapper. ReeseSticks were the latest in a series of innovative line extensions that had helped make Reese’s the company’s most successful brand. Reese’s was one of the first widely popular candies that combined chocolate and peanut butter. Competing with Hershey, the industry leader, other confectioners introduced their own crispy chocolate-and-peanut butter candies. Advertising for ReeseSticks was so effective, however, that demand exceeded supply shortly after the product was launched nationally in the spring of 1998. ‘‘The Crisp You Can’t Resist!’’ campaign of television commercials and print advertisements was created by the New York office of Ogilvy & Mather. It was introduced in print and broadcast media early in 1998 and continued into 1999.