Squares formerly known as Square and Square Crisps are a British

brand A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create an ...

of square-shaped

crisps A potato chip (North American English; often just chip) or crisp (British and Irish English) is a thin slice of potato that has been either deep fried, baked, or air fried until crunchy. They are commonly served as a snack, side dish, or app ...

made by Walkers, a subsidiary of

PepsiCo PepsiCo, Inc. is an American multinational food, snack, and beverage corporation headquartered in Harrison, New York, in the hamlet of Purchase. PepsiCo's business encompasses all aspects of the food and beverage market. It oversees the manuf ...

. They were originally made by

The Smith's Snackfood Company The Smith's Snackfood Company is a British-Australian snack food company owned by American multinational corporation PepsiCo. It is best known for its brand of potato crisps. The company was founded by Frank Smith and Jim Viney in the United Kin ...

History

The crisps have been around since at least the 1980s and went under the name of Square Crisps. Several of their advertisements featured the comedian

Lenny Henry Sir Lenworth George Henry (born 29 August 1958) is a British actor, comedian, singer, television presenter and writer. Henry gained success as a stand-up comedian and impressionist in the late 1970s and early 1980s, culminating in ''The Lenn ...

and were marketed with

slogan A slogan is a memorable motto or phrase used in a clan, political slogan, political, Advertising slogan, commercial, religious, and other context as a repetitive expression of an idea or purpose, with the goal of persuading members of the publi ...

s such as "more of a crunch than a crisp" and "the crisp that isn't a crisp". Following

's acquisition of both Walkers and Smiths in 1989 Square Crisps were renamed to simply Square, and labelled as potato snacks. The product remained under the Smiths brand years after its fellow products

Quavers Quavers are a deep-fried potato-based British snack food. Launched in the UK in 1968, they were originally made by Smith's. Since 1997 they have been produced by Walkers. The name comes from the musical note, quaver. History Quavers were lau ...

and

Monster Munch Monster Munch are a British baked corn snack created by Smiths in 1977 and manufactured by Walkers. They are aimed at children and widely consumed in the United Kingdom. Flavours include Roast Beef, Pickled Onion and Flamin' Hot. On the issue ...

were moved to the Walkers brand. In January 2001, Walkers announced to relaunch Square, and would transition it from the Smiths brand to the Walkers brand. The name of the crisps was changed to Squares shortly afterward.

Design

The design of Squares packets have changed several times. The design during the 1980s emphasised that they had 25% lower fat than regular crisps and the packaging of the salt and vinegar Squares was a much lighter shade of blue than what is currently used. During the 1990s and early 2000s, the most noticeable change apart from the change in company and name was the addition of a jagged border around the logo. In the late 2000s, the logo and design of Squares was briefly changed again. In the 2010s a new design for Squares was introduced which took aspects from other designs and is similar to the current design introduced in 2019 except for the jagged border and squares pattern. The colours of the crisps packets differ from Walkers traditional colours, with the salt & vinegar packets being blue instead of green and the cheese & onion packets being green instead of blue.

Overview

They are produced in three flavours: salt & vinegar, ready salted, and cheese & onion. They are also available in multipacks, with salt & vinegar flavoured Squares being the most popular. Comedian

Richard Osman Richard Thomas Osman (born 28 November 1970) is an English television presenter, producer, novelist and comedian. He is the creator and former co-presenter of the BBC One television quiz show ''Pointless''. He has presented the BBC Two quiz sho ...

wrote in ''The World Cup of Everything'' that Squares were invented because "scientists were concerned that children weren't hurting the roofs of their mouths as often as they should be".

References

External links

Squares
at Walkers {{PepsiCo Walkers (snack foods) brands Products introduced in the 1980s