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| - The claim that “Left Twix” and “Right Twix” are different originated from a marketing campaign that began in 2012. In reality, the two bars are the same.
An oft-repeated claim about the candy bar with "chocolate, caramel, and a surprising cookie crunch," Twix, resurfaced on social media in November 2024 when a user on TikTok posted a video about an alleged difference between the "Left Twix" and "Right Twix."
The claim posits that the left and right candy bars contained in one package of Twix are actually different. One person replied to the video and said, "It wasn't always like that but two brothers got the business and couldn't agree on their recipe so they divided it up to make a right and left Twix."
This claim has made the rounds before. In 2022, content creators were doing taste tests on YouTube and TikTok in an effort to discover the difference between the "Left Twix" and "Right Twix." In 2023, a Reddit thread brought the claim to light once again, but this time suggested that it was all just marketing.
Even Mars Inc., the manufacturer of the popular candy bar, supported the claim on its Twix website with an elaborate tale about how the two different sides of the candy bar came to be.
(Twix)
In actuality, the claim that "Left Twix" and "Right Twix" are different originated from a marketing campaign promoting the product that began in 2012 with a commercial echoing the tale from Twix website.
The fictional history described begins with two brothers, Seamus and Earl, who formed a rivalry over their creation of the Twix candy and which recipe for it was supreme, eventually leading to the alleged discrepancy between the two versions that became "Left Twix" and "Right Twix."
The difference, according to Mars, is that "Left Twix became a crunchy biscuit base upon which caramel was flowed before being bathed in chocolate…. Right Twix was a cascade of caramel on a crisp biscuit base, cloaked in chocolate." In other words, "tomato, tom-ah-toe," but it allowed fans to choose sides as part of a playful marketing stunt that extended to social media, with users posting #LeftTwix or #RightTwix in support of their choices.
The initial campaign ad premiered at the 59th Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in 2012, where Mars Inc. received the Advertiser of the Year Award.
In 2017, Mars rebranded Twix packaging with "Two Left" and "Two Right" options, allowing consumers to purchase whichever "side" they prefer.
"Twix is out to celebrate things in the real world that are the same, but different — just like Left Twix and Right Twix… We know many fans have a preference when it comes to Left or Right Twix and we're excited to now offer a pack for each side," said Allison Miazga-Bedrick, Twix brand director, at the time.
In 2022, a new ad was released that suggested an end to the Left/Right debate, with a new slogan proclaiming that no matter which side a consumer was on, it was "a good decision either way."
According to America's Test Kitchen, an independent outlet focused on food and cooking, the true history of Twix is less dramatic.
Twix is one of the many iconic candies created by storied confectionary king Mars, Inc., which began as a humble operation in Minneapolis in the 1920s and grew into a sprawling multinational empire (and incidentally one that's still family owned). Founder Frank Mars and his son Forrest Mars Sr. experienced their first success with the Milky Way Bar (1923), followed by Snickers (1930), 3 Musketeers (1932), M&M's (1941), and countless other big hits in the ensuing years. Forrest Mars Jr. created Twix in the late 1960's, manufacturing it initially in the company's UK subsidiary. In England and European markets, it was sold under the name "Raider." After it came on the U.S. market in 1979, it was renamed Twix.
While Seamus and Earl are nowhere to be found in the true story of Twix, their legend lives on as new candy enthusiasts try to determine the subtleties between "Left Twix" and "Right Twix."
For the record, there is no difference, but the campaign worked. According to a 2014 case study by Effie Worldwide, the purveyor of The Effie Awards, self-described as the preeminent award in the advertising industry since 1968:
Twix was in need of a powerful brand campaign — its positioning was inconsistent, launching entirely new campaigns every 3-5 years and it was not differentiated from Kit-Kat. The goal was to deliver a big idea that would stick and drive brand salience. A brand with two distinctive chocolate bars was uniquely poised to create a fictitious rivalry between Left and Right Twix and inspire people to choose which Twix they love more. The rivalry fueled both sales and a fun consumer debate.
Snopes reached out to Mars Inc. for direct comment on the marketing campaign and will update this article if we hear back.
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