MARS Cookie or Candy Jar

This is a ceramic cookie or candy jar with a lid made to look like a cooking stove. Both sides of the base have “m&m’s” in raised red letters, the front is painted to look like a window on an oven, and the lid has two molded figures that look like a red and yellow “m&m’s” who are looking at a pot of chocolate. The cookie jar was made for Mars, Inc.

Mars, Inc. was started by Frank C. Mars in 1911 in Takoma, Washington. Frank’s first venture failed within a short while and he moved back to Minnesota where he started again in 1920 with another candy factory, which was incorporated in 1929 as Mars, Inc. This time, with the help of his son, Forrest Mars, Sr., the business took off. In 1923, they introduced the Milky Way® which became an instant success. In 1941, the company released m&m’s® first as a military ration during WWII, but later the candy was advertised to moms as the candy that “melts in your mouth, not in your hand.” Over the years, Mars, Inc. has diversified its holdings to include chocolate and candy, pet food, food staples and Wrigley’s™ gum. Mars, Inc. is still 100% family owned, currently run by the grandchildren of Frank Mars. It has grown to an international multi-billion dollar company, employing at least 72,000 people worldwide (2013).

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