Did you know that the ‘Milkybar Kid’ made his UK television debut in 1961?
The kid-cowboy inspired character was created for Nestle’s white chocolate bar ‘Milkybar‘ (launched in 1936). Often sporting round glasses, a big white hat and blonde hair, there were ten ‘Milkybar Kids’ that starred in over five decades of tv advertising.
Terry Brook became the first Milkybar Kid and starred in the role for five years – but he was only paid £10 for his first commercial!
The chain of commercials were fictitiously set during the Wild West era of North America (with a brief stint in outer space) with a Bugsy Malone-type cast of child actors. The Milkybar Kid would often come in to save the day by dishing out plenty of the creamy, milky white chocolate bars to the locals with his catchphrase, ‘The Milkybars are on me!’
The accompanying jingle ‘The Milkybar Kid is strong and tough and the only the best is good enough’ , would become one of many candy-related childhood memories for children growing up in the UK.
The Milkybar itself was invented pretty much by accident! In 1936 while creating a vitamin enriched children’s formula called ‘Nestrovit‘, developers at Nestle experimented by adding cocoa butter to create a solid eating tablet of the mixture. Realizing they had now created a form of ‘white chocolate’, the vitamins were removed and Milkybar was developed and launched later that year!
Milkybar production temporarily paused in 1940 due to wartime shortages of milk and sugar (confectioners such as Rowntree, Fry’s and Cadbury were also affected by these wartime restrictions), but appeared back on shelves in 1956 – two years after the end of rationing.
The British Candy Connoisseur 