Why is it called lifesaver

In the span of 12 years, Noble and business partner J. One thing that helped? Noble replaced Crane's impractical cardboard packaging with a thinner tin and later aluminum foil roll that also kept the candies dry. Noble made a number of innovative marketing moves in order to expand sales, including having his clients strategically place Life Savers next to the registers of restaurants, saloons, and grocery stores, and training his clients to always provide a nickel when giving change.

With the rolls of breath mints sitting right there boasting that they were only 5 cents, and a newly received nickel in the hands of the customer, the candy practically sold itself. The low price-point continued as a selling point for decades as Life Savers started advertising their candies as "Still Only 5 Cents!

To keep the mints in high production during this period, other candy manufacturers donated their sugar rations to the company. The original fruity flavors—lemon, lime, orange, cherry, and pineapple—were introduced in and remained untouched for almost 70 years. In , Life Savers altered their five-flavor roll by replacing lemon and lime with raspberry and watermelon.

Life Savers had also swapped out orange for blackberry, but the change was short-lived. More than two million people had voted for the flavor swaps in an online poll, but poor blackberry turned out to be an unwanted addition.

Orange was quickly added back to the lineup. The new mints were designed to be round with a hole punched in the middle, which was designed to stand out against the mints shaped like pillows that were being imported from Europe in the early s. When he saw the mints, complete with their now-recognizable hole, he realized they looked like life preservers, and the name "Life Savers" was born. Many people have taken to heart a literal interpretation of the candy's name, which even inspired a widely-passed-around story.

Many believed the candy was made and named "Life Saver" after the inventor's daughter had choked and died on a mint candy without a hole in the middle. Many thought the candy was created to prevent the same thing from happening to other people's children. Select personalised content. Create a personalised content profile. Measure ad performance. Select basic ads. Create a personalised ads profile.

Select personalised ads. Apply market research to generate audience insights. Measure content performance. Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. Share Flipboard Email. Mary Bellis. Inventions Expert. Mary Bellis covered inventions and inventors for ThoughtCo for 18 years. She is known for her independent films and documentaries, including one about Alexander Graham Bell. Updated November 26,