I was on the phone last night, because in spite of all appearances, I have a friend. Anyway, we were talking about something, and the subject of Opal Fruits came up. Not in a nostalgic, gosh Starburst used to be different kind of way, just in a vague aside about something else. But the moment I heard the words ‘Opal Fruits’ I immediately began to sing, ‘Made to make your mouth water’.
I didn’t even know why at first. And I had to actually Google the lyrics to make sure I was remembering the link to Opal Fruits correctly. That’s a powerful jingle.
I remember nothing of the advert itself though, and watching it back I began to realise that yes, chewing a gummy sugar cube is almost exactly like jumping into a pool of water filled up with slices of orange and whole strawberries. So I filled up the bath, tossed in my fruit bowl and took a soak.
As I basked in the memories of never having eaten that many of the taffy bastards, I read up on the history of them. Introduced by Mars in the 1960s, someone called Peter Pfeffer (great name), won a competition to name them Opal Fruits, and bagged himself a prize of five pounds in the process.
I promise this next bit is true.
The slogan ‘made to make your mouth water’ was created by motor racing commentating legend Murray Walker.
Yeah, Murray Walker is to blame for this pointless piffle post.
