Flawed ‘study’ gets NJ’s favorite candy bar completely wrong

I used to do a candy bar survey around Halloween called the Sweets 16. It was, of course, a bracket system. People would vote online, and winning candy bars would advance to the Edible 8, then the Flavorful 4, and finally the championship round.

Year after year, no matter the pairing, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups always took the championship. I eventually stopped doing it because it became anticlimactic, like how you know if Joey Chestnut shows up for the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest, he’s going to win.

Another candy bar ranking, another head-scratcher

A study was conducted to determine the favorite candy bar in every state. It was done by McLuck (there, you got your name out there, happy McLuck?), and it is ridiculous. It was another of these Google Trends search data deep dives where they surmise the favorite candy bar by number of searches, and New Jersey’s has to be wrong.

According to this, Almond Joy is the most beloved candy bar here. Not a chance. I rarely even see these stocked in a vending machine. If a lot of people are doing Google searches on Almond Joy, I guarantee it’s because of the jingle, “sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don’t.”

It’s the jingle — not the taste — that keeps Almond Joy relevant

What comes next is probably what people can’t remember, which is which between Almond Joy and Mounds.

“Almond Joy’s got nuts, Mounds don’t.”

So yeah, every bar bet and debate on this commercial jingle as to which has what gets settled with a Google search. That doesn’t mean people are flocking to stores to buy it.

The numbers don’t lie — Reese’s reigns supreme

Clearly, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups are a more popular candy bar in New Jersey over Almond Joy. While I couldn’t find sales data specific to only the Garden State, I can tell you United States sales figures for Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups reached $398 million in 3018 and Almond Joy only $61 million in the same year.

So please. Let’s get real. Your awful little shredded coconut and almond sad excuse for a chocolate bar can’t hold a candle to a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup.

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Jeff Deminski only.

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