By Hayley Dixon
Published: | Updated:
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When they were launched in 1962 they cashed in on the aspirations of the working classes, marketing themselves as a taste of a better life.
Now After Eight is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the first minty treat. Over the last half a century they have become a staple part of Christmas Day and festive celebrations.
Among their biggest fans was the Queen Mother and to mark the milestone of their creation, controversial advertising once used for After Eight mints has been unearthed, and some would horrify today's enlightened generation.
When the famous wafer thin chocolate mint was launched in 1962 its makers used some decidedly non-PC marketing to promote it.
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The original early 1960s adverts for the wafer-thin mints, pictured, tried to establish the Rowntree brand as a upmarket treat by featuring a variety of 'Society hostesses'. But while they were a sign of the times the captions, including 'A woman's place is in the home', would horrify many women today
The adverts over the last half century show how the brand has tried to appeal to the aspirations of the rising middle classes. The adverts in the mid 1960s, pictured right, and 1970s, pictured left, took a more tongue in cheek approach to their branding to keep up with the changing times
It featured society women and pristine housewives referred to only by their husband's names passing the 'posh chocs' around after a dinner party.
The adverts, that would be classed as highly sexist by today's standards, even used slogans like 'A woman's place is in the home, eating After Eight and looking beautiful.'
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The adverts reflected society's outlook at the time, when women left full-time work after marriage, and featured women in a way that would horrify people of today, it is said.
Although the style of marketing changed with the development of women's rights in the late 1960s, it still had a swipe at feminism.
While the early 1960s adverts featuring images of opulence, pictured, might be considered less tasteful today they helped to establish the chocolate mint as a classic dinner party treat. The collection of adverts have been compiled to mark the 50th anniversary this Christmas
The adverts added an ironic twist in the mid 1970s, pictured, but stayed true to their classic ideals and even took a swipe at feminism. The images have been collated by Nestle's archive curator Alex Hutchinson who recently rediscovered the old adverts and publicity shots.
One advert showed a woman eating an After Eight sat next to a glum friend reading the socialist publication the New Statesman. The slogan reads: 'Of course nobody buys you After Eight, you're liberated.'
It was only after 1976 that the image dramatically changed and focused on the dark green and black box with the ornate clock, as it is still known of today.
Inspiration for the design was taken from a clock that was displayed in the board room of manufacturers Rowntree's, which mysteriously vanished in the 1980s.
The fascinating history of the mint has been collated by Nestle's archive curator Alex Hutchinson who recently rediscovered the old adverts and publicity shots.
The famous After Eight clock that features on every box was based on one in the boardroom at Rowntree. The clock has since disappeared leaving only this photographic record.
One of the earliest advertisem*nts for the After Eight, pictured, featured not just the wafer thin mint but a chocolate box and bar. The two variations on the style of the confectionery were soon dropped as the 'posh-chocs' image developed through the sixties
Miss Hutchinson said: 'In the early 1960s a lot of companies didn't employ married women in permanent positions.
'It was a belief that being a housewife was a full-time role, there wasn't a British law against it but most employers had it as one of their rules.
'It would have been unfair to expect women in that day to work full time when work in the home was much more difficult than it is now.
'They could come back to work for a casual or seasonal contract but that was it, women didn't want to take the job of a married man.
'It was important for woman to be seen as the wife of an important man, which is reflected in the earlier After Eight adverts.
Before they honed in on the female audience the chocolate brand used a simpler classy images to entice customers in their early adverts, pictured left. But the production line, pictured right in the early 1960s, was far less glamorous than the branding
The earliest adverts, pictured right, show the mint chocolates being sold in old money. While the early adverts, like the one pictured right, and the brand name set the chocolate up as an after dinner mint the company later tried to persuade buyers they could be eaten any time
'After we had recovered from the Second World War the economy changed and there were a lot more jobs available, we needed more workers.
'Running a home wasn't such a full-time job any more, so a lot of companies lifted the ban on women working and they were able to return to permanent work.
'The adverts reflect this change in society, the later series are actually using tongue-in-cheek humour to poke fun at the older ones.'
Henry Isaac Rowntree founded Rowntree's in 1862, which merged with Mackintosh in 1969. The company was bought out by Nestle in 1988.
The After Eight brand is approaching it's 50th Christmas, a time when the dark chocolate and mint fondant treat is most popular.
VIDEO After Eight over the years... iconic television adverts...***
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