When did Marathons become Snickers? The big question posed in Unforgotten

Unforgotten’s fourth season began last night and following the first episode, many of us are asking the same questions: when did Marathons become Snickers?

Unforgotten fans have waited patiently for 3 years for the fourth season of the amazing ITV drama. Last night, on  22 February 2021, their prayers were finally answered - and the first episode did not disappoint! Last night, we watched a cold case mystery unfold and Cassie being roped back into work despite the fact she was ready to retire in the last season. 

The first episode perfectly set up the rest of the season as the identity of the dismembered frozen body, that was discovered in a freezer, was revealed and we were introduced to various potential suspects. However, viewers were left with a lot of questions: who is in the Unforgotten series 4 cast? And what can we expect from the new series of the ITV drama? And, bizarrely, when did Marathons become Snickers?

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Why are people asking 'when did Marathons become Snickers' after watching Unforgotten? 

In the show, a dismembered dead body is found frozen solid in an abandoned freezer. After a wrapper for a Marathon is found in the pocket of the victim’s clothes, investigators begin to question the age of the body that they have just discovered. 

As the body is perfectly preserved, it is unclear how long the body has been in the freezer. However, the chocolate bar wrapper gives the investigators a brilliant clue, as Marathon is the old name for a Snickers bar. This means that the victim must have been killed before the chocolate bar changed its name to Snickers. 

When did Marathons become Snickers?

Snickers were named Marathons in the UK and Ireland until 1990.

Snickers was the global name used in the United States so Mars decided to align their UK product by changing the name to fit with the global brand. So Marathons became Snickers globally in 1990.

Were Marathons available after 1990?

In 2019, Marathons were made available again for a limited time only in their modern plastic wrapping but with the name Marathon. The retro bar was available for 12 weeks and over 4 million bars were sold. In 2020, Mars did the same 3-month campaign again. 

A Mars spokesperson said in 2020, “It’s clear that after nearly 30 years away, people loved the return of the Marathon bar last year. When the British public speaks, we always aim to deliver! It’s great that after making chocolate in the UK for nearly 90 years people still love our chocolate!”

In the episode, we see that the original wrapper is paper instead of plastic and features a dated-looking design. Although it was questioned whether this could have been part of the modern marketing scheme, the team determined that this is the original wrapper due to it being made of paper rather than plastic.

We also see that one of the team members is unaware that Snickers bars were even called Marathons. Snickers were invented in 1930 and labelled as Marathon in the UK until 1990, 31 years ago. So it makes sense that someone born in the 1990s, or even the late 1980’s might be unaware that Marathons even existed. This wrapper ended up being a vital part of the investigation and makes a very good case for eating more chocolate bars.