Hershey's Swoops
Chocolate slices shaped like Pringles potato chips, for reasons nobody could explain — and almost nobody knew they existed anyway. From 2003 to 2006 they came in snack cups, flavored like the Hershey lineup: Milk Chocolate, Reese's, York, Almond Joy. The perfect 2000s grocery-aisle experiment: an idea that made sense on a whiteboard and nowhere else.
In 2003, The Hershey Company launched Swoops: thin chocolate slices curved like Pringles potato chips, because the company apparently believed chocolate needed to impersonate something else. They came in the flavors of Hershey's flagship bars — Milk Chocolate, Reese's Peanut Butter, York Peppermint Pattie, Almond Joy, White Chocolate Reese's, Toffee & Almond — plus limited editions like White Chocolate Peppermint at Christmas, Special Dark with Almonds, and Strawberries & Creme. You bought them in little snack cups instead of bar wrappers.
The problem was that almost nobody knew they existed. An April 2004 market-research study found only 14% of customers were even aware of Swoops. By August 2006, three years in, Hershey discontinued the line, and Fast Company later filed it under the headline "What Were They Thinking? Swoops, Hershey's Chocolate Oops."
It remains a perfect little 2000s specimen: a beloved chocolate remade to look like a snack chip for no reason anyone could articulate, failing quietly on shelves while the people who actually tried one never forgot it.
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