Unique Vehicles Used to Promote Life Savers Lollies From the 1920s and 1930s

In 1912, an American businessman named Ed Noble learned of a peppermint candy shaped like a life saver. Through Ed’s pioneering efforts in tinfoil packaging, distinctive label design and easy-reach product display, this candy with its distinctive ‘O’ shape quickly became an everyday favorite.

The first Life Savers factory was established in Australia in 1921 on Parramatta Road in Sydney, and from that moment, Life Savers was on a roll down under. An enterprising young Australian named Bill Kirby saw the potential of Life Savers and he played a prominent role in building Life Savers in Australia and across Asia.

Advertising its product had been an important part of Life Savers, starting with newspaper, magazine, and radio advertising. Television, let alone the internet, was far in the future. But the company was tuned in with the times and promoted its product with some interesting rolling billboards.

While trucks were naturals for displaying a company’s wares on their painted sides, several companies took this one step farther, building vehicles which resembled the actual product. The most remembered examples of this are the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile, and the Zippo lighter car. Life Savers was at the forefront of this trend with several fleets of mechanized marketing vehicles used by its sales staff. Perhaps the most blatant mobile display was the fleet of 1933 Dodges with car bodies purpose-built to resemble 15-foot long rolls of Life Savers. Advertising at the time noted the “body” on the Dodge was S4,000 times the size of a regular pack of the candy with the hole.

These custom-made cars were powered by a six-cylinder engine, and featured optional wire wheels and rare whitewall tires to dress them up. It appears the car’s engine, frame, running gear, fenders, and bumpers are all that were used from the donor car. There is a good chance the chrome headlight pods were retained, fitted into the circular body at the front. The “hole” in the car’s front would have been open to allow air to the radiator and engine compartment. The cars sport just two seats, have a custom windshield, and no weather protection.