The Mars today is moreish in every way

THE MARS BAR is dead, long live the Mars Bar. In a daring move to breathe new life into one of the world's strongest brand names, Mars is changing the 60-year-old recipe for its melange of nougat, caramel and chocolate, writes Topaz Amoore. The exhortation that 'A Mars a day helps you work, rest and play' is being dropped.

Mars is relaunching its standard-sized bar with a pounds 2m advertising campaign and a new slogan: 'Now there's more to Mars.' Paying little heed to healthy eating trends and warnings from industry experts that snackers are moving away from 'big, heavy, gungie, sugary eats', Mars has increased the weight of its 'smoother and creamier' treat by 6 per cent to 65g.

Mars yesterday denied that it feared for the future of the Bar. 'We have made it 6 per cent bigger. We have made it richer. Recent research shows a clear preference for a bigger portion size. This is a successful product.' Snack-bar analysts were wondering why Mars wanted to fix something that it claimed wasn't broke.

Mars has also enhanced the flavour and says the taste is 'now even better'. This echoes the remarks made by Coca-Cola's management, whose decision to tinker with the taste of Coke went down as one of the greatest marketing fiascos of modern times.

'The best has been made even better', Coke boasted, three months before an outraged public forced a return to the original flavour.