In 1912, chocolate manufacturer Clarence Crane (Cleveland, Ohio) invented Life Savers as a “summer candy” that could withstand heat better than chocolate. Since the mints looked like miniature life preservers, he called them Life Savers. After registering the trademark, Crane sold the rights to the peppermint candy to Edward Noble for $2,900. Noble created tin-foil wrappers to keep the mints fresh, instead of cardboard rolls. Pep-O-Mint was the first Life Saver flavor. The five-flavor roll first appeared in 1935.
Since their introduction, this candies and mints became an iconic American brand across non-chocolate candy and mints due to their great tasting flavors and unique candy with the hole shape. Over 40 flavors of Life Savers have been crated since the original was launched.
In the 80’s, the brand launched a TV commercial called “A hole Lot of fun” referring to the hole that the candy has to seem to be a Life Saver.
In the 90’s the brand decided to launch the “Life Savers holes” which pretended to be the missing part of the original Life Savers candies.
The “holes” were bites sold in a five flavor package.
Check out this commercial launched in 1994:
Recently, Life Savers are one of the best seller candies of Wrigley, and its variety has expanded to include Life Savers Gummies.