1988 Smarties

smarties-looseNestlé Smarties are a colour-varied sugar-coated chocolate confectionery popular primarily in Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, Spain, Switzerland, Germany,France, Greece, the Nordic countries, South Africa, and the Middle East. They have been manufactured since 1937, originally by H.I. Rowntree & Co..

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.

Info gleaned from Wikipedia

1988 Weetabix

wheetabixWeetabix is a whole grain wheat breakfast cereal produced by Weetabix Limited of the United Kingdom. It comes in the form of palm-sized (rounded rectangles approx. 9.5 cm × 5.0 cm or 4″ × 2″) biscuits. Variants include organic and Weetabix Minis (bite-sized) versions.  The UK cereal is manufactured in Burton Latimer, Kettering, United Kingdom and in Canada and exported to over 80 countries.  Weetabix for the North American market (Canada and the U.S) is manufactured in Cobourg, Ontario, in both organic and conventional versions.

Info gleaned from Wikipedia

1988 Rover 200 Series

rover_200_silver_1980sThe Rover 200 Series, and the later Rover 25, were a series of Rover-branded compact cars produced by the Austin Rover Group, and latterly the Rover Group, and then MG Rover.

There have been three distinct generations of the Rover 200. The first generation was a four-door saloon car based on the Honda Ballade. The second generation was available in three or five-door hatchback forms, as well a coupé and cabriolet (in relatively small numbers). Its sister model, the Honda Concerto was built on the same production line in Rover’s Longbridge factory. The final generation was developed independently by Rover on the platform of its predecessor, and was available as a three or five-door hatchback. After the sale of Rover in 2000, and following a facelift, the model was renamed and sold as both the Rover 25 and MG ZR. Production ceased in 2005 when MG Rover went into administration. Production rights and tooling for the model, but not the Rover name, now belong to Chinese car manufacturer Nanjing Automotive.

Info gleaned from Wikipedia

1988 Penguin Chocolate Bars

penguinThey were first produced in 1932 by William McDonald, a biscuit manufacturer in Glasgow, and became a McVitie’s brand when McDonald joined with McVitie’s and Price, MacFarlane Lang & Co and Crawford to form United Biscuits in 1964.

Each wrapper has a joke or “funny fact” printed on it and imaginative, often humorous designs featuring penguins that often pastiche famous works of art.

Penguins have been the subject of a court case between Asda and United Biscuits who accused Asda of passing off their own brand “Puffin” biscuits as part of the Penguin brand. The court found in favour of United Biscuits regarding passing off, but found that Asda had not infringed the Penguin trademark.   United Biscuits itself has been criticised for continuing to use trans fatty acids in the cream filling of Penguins.  By 2007 United Biscuits began to advertise the absence of trans fats from the penguin, having removed the ingredient from this product line.

Info gleaned from Wikipedia

1988 Mr Sheen

mr-sheen-origMr. Sheen is a brand of cleaning materials (chiefly floor and furniture polish) created in Australia in the 1950s by Samuel Taylor Pty Ltd. It was the first aerosol cleaning product available on the Australian market and helped introduce the use of aerosol products into Australia. The product moved to a British company Reckitt & Colman in 1969 when Samuel Taylor Pty Ltd was bought out. It is available in many other countries around the world, including the United Kingdom, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Jamaica.

The Australian Television advertisements use the character of Mr. Sheen, a smiling, rosy-cheeked, bald man with spectacles in a dark suit. The British version is a cartoon caricature of aWWI biplane pilot (originally voiced by Willie Rushton) who flies around the house on a dusting cloth cleaning tables, banisters and television sets, using the slogan “Mr Sheen shines umpteen things clean”. Another slogan (sung as a jingle) was “Clean wax and polish as you dust with Mr. Sheen”. This jingle was patterned on the famous vaudeville song/sketch Mister Gallagher and Mister Shean; while it is likely the name Mr Sheen was also inspired by this song, and the fortuitous connection between sheen and cleanliness, it is unknown at this point whether there is a causal connection or not.

Info gleaned from Wikipedia