What Happened To United Chocolate Biscuit Bars?
United was a unique, football-themed chocolate biscuit bar by McVitie's, which was particularly popular in Great Britain during the 1980s. With its iconic, blue and white striped wrapper (which was based on a football shirt), the bar was once a popular site in school lunch boxes — But whatever happened to it?
United launched in 1979, and featured a generous and delicious crisp candy chocolate coating, covering a crunchy, rectangular biscuit.
As a child of the 80s, I certainly remember that each biscuit was designed to be snapped into two segments, and had a line (indentation) in the centre of the chocolate coating to guide you. However, I preferred to simply bite into it, to avoid getting messy chocolate over my fingers, particularly in the warmer weather.
The wrapper design and packaging changed several times, and at one point, included a football graphic. The wrapper was given a major modern makeover in the late 80s, with the thick, vertical white stripes being replaced by thin horizontal stripes. It was renamed United Golden Crunch, and the text logo became orange.
As with similar-sized biscuit bars such as Penguin and Club, United came in a multipack, usually containing six bars.
There was also an orange flavoured United, which also came in a striped wrapper in two shades of orange.
The football concept was certainly a unique one, and I can't think of any other biscuit to adopt this theme.
United was discontinued in the early 1990s, although we have been unable to find out the exact year.
TV Adverts
There were three TV ads for United, the first of which aired in 1979. The original advert featured a group of football fans in a mini bus. Rather than going to a football match, they arrive at McVitie's, where there is a large container filled with United biscuit bars.
Two different TV adverts aired in the UK during the 1980s. They both featured an animation with the catchy song “We're Delighted to Eat United”. The following ad is from 1986...
Screen grab from the original 1979 TV advert
Wrapper from the 1980s
I hope you enjoyed reading about what happened to United. You may also like our post about Milk Chocolate Footballs