If you’re of a certain age, then you remember Pez, the candy, and even more so, the ingenious spring-loaded mechanical dispensers. They were the kid’s equivalent of a gold cigarette lighter.
Some things I bet you didn’t know:
- Pez originated in Austria and was originally marketed as a smoking cessation aid.
- Pez tablets started out peppermint flavored. The name comes from the first, middle, and last letters in the German word for peppermint (pfefferminz).
- The transition from breath mint to fruit flavored candy was driven by the plan to market Pez to kids.
- The iconic Pez dispenser design is patented.
- Some of the rarest Pez dispensers now sell for thousands of dollars.
The article below tells more about this unlikely success story.
Early in its history, the candy company made a strategic move to find its most successful market