Butterfingers: Flaky, Fun, and Crispety

 Nestlé’s Butterfingers are at the top of my favorite candy bar list. A Butterfinger is a “crispety, crunchety, peanut-buttery” chocolate covered bar of a candy flaky peanut-butter flavored filling that resembles peanut brittle.

You probably aren’t going to want to share much of this candy bar, which will leave you with a lap full of crumbs and chunks of the peanut butter filling stuck in your teeth. Luckily those chunks will provide you with a little snack when you are craving a little more after you finish the bar.

The Curtiss Candy Company invented Butterfingers in 1923. The name was chosen in a public contest by a guy whose nickname was Butterfinger. That doesn’t sound like the most flattering nickname as a butterfinger usually describes someone who is clumsy, for example, a football player who can’t catch the ball. Butterfinger was bought by Nabisco and then by Nestlé in 1990 who currently advertises Butterfinger under the slogans, “Follow the Finger,” and “Break out of the Ordinary.”

Fun Facts:
From 1990 to 2001 The Simpsons from the Fox show had a strong advertising campaign using slogans such as “Nobody better lay a finger on my Butterfinger!” and “Nothin’ like a Butterfinger!” After Butterfinger stopped using the Simpsons for advertising, the Simpsons displayed a scene in which Butterfinger bars were unable to be burned and a character says, “even the fire doesn’t want them.” I wouldn’t want to be in the middle of that little dispute.

As an April Fools day prank in 2008 Nestlé announced that they had changed the name of the candy bar to “The Finger.” Nestlé created a whole website around the spoof saying that the previous brand name had been clumsy and awkward. Now you can find silly videos to follow this prank on the Butterfinger Comedy Network.