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1916: Otto Young Schnering founded the Curtiss Candy Company in Chicago.
His first candy bar was called “Kandy Kake,” a combination of milk chocolate, peanuts, and a pudding center (precursor to Baby Ruth).
ORIGINS OF BABY RUTH
1920: Otto Schnering reformulated Kandy Kake into the Baby Ruth candy bar.
The reformulation contained peanuts, nougat, caramel, and milk chocolate.
He set Baby Ruth’s price point at five cents.
AIRDROPS
1923: Otto Schnering hired pilot Doug Davis to airdrop Baby Ruth and Butterfinger candy bars from an airplane to commuters in New York City.
The aerial marketing campaign was a success.
He expanded the campaign into the Baby Ruth Flying Circus, which crisscrossed 40 states, dropping his candy bars during special events.
AMERICA’S TOP-SELLING CANDY BAR
1927: Baby Ruth’s monthly sales surpassed one million dollars!
1928: Baby Ruth became America’s top-selling candy bar.
This same year, The Curtiss Candy Company employed over 3,000 Chicagoans, operated three factories, and built out a fleet of over 200 freight cars to transport their candy bars across the USA.
THE BABY RUTH RADIO HOUR
1929: The Curtiss Candy Company sponsored “The Baby Ruth Hour,” a radio program broadcast on CBS Radio.
This radio show was one of many branded entertainment programs during the early days of commercial radio broadcasting—companies commonly sponsored entire shows to promote products.
RUTH’S HOME RUN LAWSUIT
1931: The Curtiss Candy Company sued George H. Ruth Candy Co. over its “Ruth’s Home Run” candy bar.
The company claimed it was too similar to their “Baby Ruth” candy bar, despite the fact that Curtiss had likely named their own product after Babe Ruth but claimed it was named after President Cleveland’s dead daughter.
The court ruled in favor of Curtiss Candy Company, preventing its competitor from using the name in its products.
FAMOUS BILLBOARD
1932: The company buys a billboard placement near Wrigley Field, where Babe Ruth’s famous “Called Shot” landed.
STANDARD BRANDS
1964: Standard Brands acquired Curtiss Candy Company.
NABISCO
1981: The Curtiss Candy Company’s branded candies, including Baby Ruth, became part of Nabisco’s portfolio.
THE GOONIES
1985: Nabisco paid $100,000 to place the Baby Ruth candy bar in the film “The Goonies,” which featured the candy prominently through the character of Sloth.
In the movie, Baby Ruth became one of Sloth’s favorite treats, alongside Rocky Road ice cream.
NESTLE
1990: Nestle takes control of the Curtiss brands by purchasing them from Nabisco.
NASCAR SPONSORSHIPS
1992: Baby Ruth sponsored Jeff Gordon’s #1 Ford in the NASCAR Busch Series.
1993: The NASCAR sponsorship moved to Jeff Burton’s #8 Ford in the same series.
LICENSE DEAL
1995: During Babe Ruth’s centenary year, the Ruth estate licensed the baseball legend’s name and likeness to be used in Baby Ruth candy marketing campaigns.
OFFICIAL CANDY BAR OF MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
2006: Baby Ruth became the “Official Candy Bar of Major League Baseball” via a three-year deal with Nestle.
This came as the market research showed that Baby Ruth consumers were found to be 22% more likely than the average population to be MLB fans and 18% more likely to have attended an MLB game in the previous year.
FERRERO CANDY COMPANY
2018: Most recently, Ferrero acquired Nestle USA’s entire candy business for $2.8 billion.
UPDATED RECIPE
2019: Ferrara Candy Company relaunched the Baby Ruth candy bar with an improved recipe.
They replaced oil-roasted peanuts with dry-roasted peanuts grown in the United States and removed the food preservative TBHQ.
They also changed the packaging, which now included a new double-layer metallic wrapper to preserve freshness.
