The Twizzlers candy challenge has been a beloved tradition for baseball fans and card collectors alike for decades. The unusual origin story and controversy surrounding this unique promotional stunt are not widely known. Let’s take a deeper look at the history and legacy of one of the sweetest promotions in baseball.
It all began in 1959 when the Hershey Company, makers of the iconic Twizzlers pull-and-peel candy, was looking for new ways to market their product to American youth. Inspired by the booming interest in sports card collecting following the release of the famous 1959 Topps baseball card set, Hershey executives hatched a plan to produce a limited run of Twizzlers-branded cards featuring young major leaguers. Each individually wrapped Twizzlers rope would contain a semi-randomly inserted baseball card.
Kids could enjoy the sweet treat while seeing if they “struck gold” by finding a card of their favorite player inside. This novel concept was an immediate success, leading Hershey to make the Twizzlers cards an annual limited-run baseball card insert set each subsequent season. By the mid-1960s, the fervor surrounding the hunt for these rare candied cards had reached a fever pitch among youthful collectors around the country.
The cards themselves were distinguishingly printed on a thicker, glossier stock than typical cards of the era. Along with a color photo and player stats, they prominently featured the Twizzlers logo and catchphrase “Pull ’em and Peel ’em for a Ball Player!” on the front. The reverse contained wrapping and ingredients information for legal purposes. Production numbers were intentionally kept very low, with some estimates placing inserts at only 1 in 10,000 Twizzlers ropes nationwide.
This scarcity drove collectors into a frenzy each spring, racing to convenience stores and drug stores the moment new Twizzlers shipments arrived, hoping to rip open enough pull-and-peels to unearth a coveted cardboard treasure inside. Tales spread of neighborhoods briefly running out of Twizzlers as kids greedily scoured every last inch of excess packaging for elusive cards. Some stores even began charging premium “loot box” prices for guaranteed-to-contain cards inside select Twizzlers packages.
While bringing Twizzlers gratuitous promotion, the inserts also fueled sales of Topps regular issues and card variants, as collectors sought to complete rainbow runs of the rare subset. By the late 1960s and 1970s heyday of the hobby, the Twizzlers cards had become a true status symbol among collectors, with unopened examples selling for upwards of $50 a piece on the fledgling collector marketplace – monstrous sums at the time.
The promotion was not without controversy. As the challenge grew ever more competitive and sales-driven, rumors of shortpacked cards, sandbagged production numbers, and covert scalping operations by unscrupulous collectors looking to profit off the craze began to swirl. Some questioned whether Hershey and Topps were deliberately withholding cards to artificially inflate demand and secondary market profits. Revelations emerged that full rainbow sets of early 1960s issues likely numbered in the single digits nationwide due to reported shortages.
By the late 1970s, amidst the decline of the hot postwar collector market and changing tastes, Hershey and Topps mutually agreed to retire the iconic inserts. A final 1979 run featuring Nolan Ryan brought the Twizzlers cards full circle before quietly disappearing from candy aisles. While no longer actively produced, survivors from the heyday golden era frequently trade hands for thousands among elite collectors to this day. Original examples in unopened condition can fetch over $10,000 or more at auction.
The Twizzlers challenge lives on in legend as one of the most memorable marketing tie-ins in the history of sports cards. Whether spurring genuine childhood joy or cutthroat competition among collectors, it ingrained itself in baseball card culture and helped define an era. While its rarity and mystique may never again be replicated, these sweetened cardboard slices of our national pastime maintain a hallowed place in the memories and collections of generations who grew up chasing that elusive prize within a stick of twisted red licorice. The legacy of its contribution to the hobby ensures this novel promotional twist will remain synonymous with baseball for decades to come.
The Twizzlers challenge introduced a novel concept by randomly inserting baseball cards inside candy to promote both products, sparking widespread collecting fervor. While successfully marketing Twizzlers and cards, questions remain about production numbers amid rumors of artificial scarcity. Regardless, survivors retain immense value as icons representing baseball cards’ golden age and helping define the hobby. Its unique origin story and role in collecting lore ensure this sweet promotional twist remains etched in baseball card history.
