Entertaining

The 80s Commercial That (Almost) Brings This Discontinued Candy Bar Back to Life

September 21, 2016

Every Thursday, I'll be dusting off the retro and forgotten by offering a look back at some old commercials for discontinued snacks. In the absence of the actual food item in question, commercials offer the closest chance we can get to its memory. First up? This Nestlé Alpine White commercial from 1986.

I was all of negative six in 1986 when Nestlé unleashed its now-defunct Alpine White bar on the American market. It was a white chocolate bar embedded with almonds. According to this three-year-old xoJane article, the candy bar would shapeshift if you held it in your hands for an extended period of time, the Nestlé logo in the center dissolving into some lumpen mass. Incredible. It was also, from what I've gleaned anecdotally, a very good bar of chocolate.

It's nowhere to be found these days. I looked for it on eBay to see if some dude has preserved one for thirty years, and I only got hits for guitars. Sigh. There are those who clamor for the chocolate bar's return—look at this Facebook campaign, filled with a small but mighty bunch who wants the Nestlé Alpine White bar back on their shelves. The most recent comment was posted two days ago.

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Yet the Nestlé Alpine White bar's thirty-second commercial lives on, replete with a synthesizer-soaked jingle and atmospheric visuals. It's among its medium's finest. Seriously. I don't even remember how I discovered this commercial a few months ago, but here we are. While the rest of the world listens to the new Frank Ocean, I am alone in my room plugging this baby into InfiniteLooper. "This is my jam," I once told my mother. I have even instructed those closest to me that this song be played at my funeral. Look:

Man. Isn't this the most gorgeous commercial you've ever seen?

Join The Conversation

Top Comment:
“I was 8 or so when the Alpine White candy bar came out. I asked for one based on the first commercial and I got one every other day when my mom went to the store for this or that. The day she came home and handed me a cookies 'n' cream Nestle because 'they don't have the Alpine White anymore' was a dark day indeed. It was my favorite candy bar and nothing's ever been as good since.”
— Maria S.
Comment

Lots of moving parts here, and they demand a close read. The commercial begins with some mightily fast-moving clouds before giving way to a long shot of a woman, draped in what appears to be a large tissue, unfurling her arms at the edge of a cliff. The blue Nestlé logo flashes across the screen before a turtleneck-clad man bites the bar and gazes up at sky. The candy bar itself emerges from a pool of off-white, opaque liquid. A woman ice skates. A redhead, draped in a long fur coat, tugs at her hood and gazes at us (male gaze, female gaze—a lot happening here) as a heretofore unheard female voice lets out an operatic scream. "Aaaaaaaaaaauuuugggggh!" she sings. Almonds fall from the sky. Tissue woman appears again, perched on a swing against a mountain-scape. All this while the singer treats this whole charade as if it's a spelling bee, periodically reminding us, "N-E-S-T-L-E-S."

It's one hell of a commercial. Consider the wealth of talent behind it, after all. Filmed in 1986 by the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency, responsible for such campaigns as Toys 'R' Us' "I don't want to grow up!", the commercial's music was imagined up by veteran composer Lloyd Landesman, who spent the mid-1980s working as a jingle maestro with such clients as Budweiser, Chevrolet, Ford, Pepsi, and Visa. The video's aesthetic borrows a page from American painter Maxfield Parrish's "The Dinky Bird" (1904), a fine painting, pictured below.

Maxfield Parrish's "The Dinky Bird" (1904)

Soon enough, Nestlé began riffing on this commercial after the product had been in the market for a few years. A summer version that advertised regular brown milk chocolate was released that same year, and I've embedded it below. It lacks the atmospheric charge of the original.

Yawn. The 1989 version, below, hearkens back to the original's operatic absurdity, though—it features a cellist on a mountain and white horses roaming around (I swear you can't make this shit up), and, perhaps, a skier falling to his death? What a way to die!

But the 1990 version, sung by Sophie B. Hawkins, is all wrong. Watching it, one gets the overwhelming sense that Nestlé had lost sight of the campaign's original appeal. Take a look:

I mean, I guess this is fine, in the same way everyone who wasn't Suzanne Somers was a fine replacement for Suzanne Somers on Three's Company. Anyway, if you watch this 1990 version and get the sense that something's askew, you've got good business acumen: The product was discontinued soon after.

I couldn't find a good answer online to when exactly Nestlé pulled the Alpine White bar from its shelves, though. Feeling a little dangerous, I dipped my toes into some light reporting this morning, calling Nestlé Headquarters and demanding to speak with a knowledgable representative. A rep for Nestlé, who told me to call him "Chad," gave me an answer. He informed me the bar had been discontinued in 1993, but he had no information in his records on when Nestlé Alpine White entered the market. Rather, he offered the suggestion that I “poke around Google” for that information.

Here's some white chocolate that is not Nestlé Alpine White.

I closed out our call with one last question—more like a cry for help disguised as journalistic inquiry—about whether Nestlé had any plans to bring this chocolate bar back.

“I can’t disclose if there are or there aren't," Chad informed me, "but I can say that if it’s been discontinued since 1993, it’s not looking good." Within seconds, he broke into a monstrous, pitying laugh. I said thank you and hung up.

Remember the Nestlé Alpine White bar? Have the hots for these commercials? Let us know in the comments! And look out for next week's commercial.

See what other Food52 readers are saying.

  • Snowbunny
    Snowbunny
  • Minutia
    Minutia
  • Travis Romine
    Travis Romine
  • Kimberly Donohoe
    Kimberly Donohoe
  • Maria Smith
    Maria Smith
Mayukh Sen is a James Beard Award-winning food and culture writer in New York. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, the New Yorker, Bon Appetit, and elsewhere. He won a 2018 James Beard Award in Journalism for his profile of Princess Pamela published on Food52.

19 Comments

Snowbunny June 19, 2024
Thank you for sharing that commercial. Everything i love in life. I guess that’s why i loved this candy bar!
 
Minutia January 25, 2023
Thank you for this article. Your description of the commercial is spot-on as well as how the subsequent versions missed the mark. I distinctly remember watching it in 1987. It was/is still my favorite in the medium of commercials. I think the "tissue woman" (as you put it) is intended to evoke Maxfield Parrish’s work, both times and most literally the second time. My roommate and I both loved the commercial as well as the Alpine white chocolate bar. The commercial would come on the tv and we'd be silent and transfixed. Thanks also for the higher resolution version of it. Hey Nestle, bring the bar back!
 
Travis R. April 23, 2021
My wife and I decided that this is the one commercial we want to see 100 times over and over. She actually said why stop there.
I wish ad agencies put as much thought and magical cheese 🧀 into today’s ads.
That ship has sailed for us though as we work hard to be ad free with on demand due to the awful boring ads that disrespect the general public daily.
Thanks so much for putting this article together. I purchased a white Kit Kat today in honor of this little unicorn.
 
Kimberly D. February 15, 2021
I was 23 and loved this candy bar. If you left it in the sun for about a minute the texture and taste changed, but it was still good. I found that out my accident. My little boy loved them.
 
Maria S. April 18, 2020
I was 8 or so when the Alpine White candy bar came out. I asked for one based on the first commercial and I got one every other day when my mom went to the store for this or that. The day she came home and handed me a cookies 'n' cream Nestle because 'they don't have the Alpine White anymore' was a dark day indeed. It was my favorite candy bar and nothing's ever been as good since.
 
Jeff P. April 15, 2020
I was (and am still) *obsessed* with this commercial and song. The music is stunning (except for Sophie’s version!) as are the visuals. I wanted to be these people, I absolute wanted this candy bar, I wanted the song to be a full 4 minutes. Sadly, I got none of these things, but for 30 brief seconds every now and then, I got to be a part of this fantasy world, if only through my television set.
 
BParker August 4, 2019
These commercials explain so much. I remember occasionally eating this elusive candy bar as a kid after going to the grocery store with my mom and thinking it was a cool candy bar. It wasn't my favorite, but it was the one I wanted to be seen eating in public at the age of 7. It was sophisticated. I want to feel awesome like that again. The commercial helps- thank you.
 
Erika W. July 5, 2018
There are other Maxfield Parrish paintings that are exactly those they used, but that's OK. Also, I found it weird that Faith No More did a cover of the Nestle ad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfIuST1f6HA
 
Heidi M. May 24, 2018
I think I found a slightly superior (as if!) version of this bar. It’s the Mosser Roth Privat (sic) Chocolatiers Chocolat Composé - White Almond. Made in Germany (Champagne of Chocolate!) and sold in America by Aldi (for those with a beer budget). I grabbed on a whim, and within the first few moments I knew I had found it! I looked at a different Aldi, and they didn’t have it, but another one did. Both of these bars are so yummy! You should try to get your hands one, and the fancy one doesn’t melt into a shapeless blob.
 
kotharin April 10, 2018
I believe the song has a lot of similarities to Alphaville's 1984 hit 'forever young' same vibe, synths, etc. anyone else notice that? it later appeared in the napoleon dynamite soundtrack and it was a perfect choice
 
Matt August 16, 2017
I'll just put this here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiVSm-1u-vA
 
lenson8 June 7, 2017
The playlist is really cool. I just loved it. You can get the free version of album on setbeat app. Get it from http://setbeatapp.com
 
teresa December 21, 2016
I used to buy Ben and Jerry's, Chocolate Ice Cream, and we'd put the pint in a bowl, let it soften a bit, then break up a bar or two of Alpine White and mix it in...best stuff ever!! I even sent Ben and Jerry a letter asking if they could replicate that. The company actually wrote back, saying it was "interesting" and they would look into it...I don't think they every did. Sadness.....
 
Kelly September 30, 2016
This commercial made me feel "naughty" watching it when I was little. That jam is dope. And that boy with the lips and eyes for days. Like the Preferred Stock model.
 
Mia C. September 22, 2016
hysterical. also, a+ article. as magnificent as the white horses.
 
PhillipBrandon September 22, 2016
But there's definitely no S at the end of "Nestlé"
 
Greenstuff September 22, 2016
It's apostrophe S. I can tell you didn't grow up in the 50s.
 
creamtea September 22, 2016
"N-E-S-T-L-E-S, Nestle's makes the very best. Chocolate."
 
Sam1148 September 22, 2016
You must be "This white" to buy this chocolate.