Take 5 candy bar rebranded as Reese’s, continues to be the best candy bar

During the Super Bowl, Hershey’s aired an ad for its neglected candy bar Take 5. Now marketed as Reese’s Take 5, the commercial, which featured an office employee using various figures of speech synonymous with “living under a rock” to shame her coworker, who is actually living under a rock, for not knowing about Take 5. The commercial ends with the tagline “the best bar you’ve never heard of.”

Ever since I learned of the existence of Take 5, I have been baffled, offended even, that it is not a more popular candy bar. Snickers has been resting on its laurels for years! Meanwhile most people (anecdotally) who eat a Take 5 acknowledge that it’s the perfect combination of salty and sweet, crunchy and chewy. It contains pretzels, caramel, peanut butter, peanuts, all coated in a layer of chocolate.

And yet, when it comes to candy bar sales, Take 5 is obviously lacking, based on this new slogan. When I saw the Super Bowl commercial, I was excited to try this new version of a Take 5 that somehow incorporated Reese’s. I bought one, thought it was maybe even tastier than an already very tasty candy bar, only to realize that it is the exact same as regular Take 5 bars, just now under the Reese’s name. Apparently Take 5 has always contained the same peanut butter as a Reese’s cup, but Hershey was too cowardly to brand it as such, treating the candy bar like the bastard son of an ashamed queen.

According to a June press release, when Take 5 first announced the rebranding, Hershey’s conducted tests where participants tried the candy in its previous black wrapper, and in the Reese’s wrapper. “As fans tried both versions, participants lost their minds over the Reese’s Take 5 bars.”

I did too, as I posted an Instagram story about how good the Reese’s Take 5 is and then had to immediately amend my statement like a fool!

Hopefully Hershey keeps with the current packaging and continues to support its number one offspring, especially considering the previous packaging was just hideous. Deciding they needed to appeal to millennials or men or whatever, Hershey re-branded from Take 5’s original red packaging to black packaging with slime green accent. It reminded me of the color palette of men’s athletic wear, or deodorant.

This Valentine’s Day, treat yourself, and your loved ones right with the best candy bar on the market. Alternatively, just mix peanut butter, peanuts, chocolate, pretzels, and caramel in a bowl. Hershey didn’t invent salty and sweet!

This article appears in Feb 5-11, 2020.