70’s commercial for Smarties

Smarties are oblate spheroids with a minor axis of about 5 mm (0.2 in) and a major axis of about 15 mm (0.6 in). They come in eight colours: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, pink and brown, although the blue variety was temporarily replaced by a white variety in some countries, while an alternative natural colouring dye of the blue colour was being researched.

History

Rowntree’s of York, England, have been making “Chocolate Beans” since at least 1882. The product was renamed “Smarties Chocolate Beans” in 1937. Rowntree’s were forced to drop the words “chocolate beans” in 1977 due to trading standards requirements (the use of the word “beans” was felt to be misleading) so adopted the “Milk Chocolate in a Crisp Sugar Shell”. Later, the sweet was rebranded as “Smarties”.

Smarties are no longer manufactured in York; production has now moved to Germany, where a third of them were already made. Outside Europe, Nestlé’s largest production facility for Smarties is in Canada, where Nestle has been manufacturing products since 1918.

Info gleaned from Wikipedia