Cadbury has agreed to resurrect the Wispa bar it consigned to history in 2003 after a concerted net campaign in which choc fans mobilised on Facebook and YouTube to demand satisfaction:

Admittedly, the above's not the most energetic call-to-arms ever to grace cyberspace, but it does form part of a critical activist mass - including the pair who earlier this year interrupted Iggy Pop's Glastonbury performance bearing a "Bring Back Wispa" banner* - which has persuaded Cadbury to bow to "unprecendented" pressure.

According to the Telegraph, Cadbury's Tony Bilsborough explained: "We get letters about the Aztec bar and the lime barrel in the Dairy Milk tray. But this is on a whole different scale. This is the first time we are going to give the internet a chance to prove itself and see whether it is all hype or genuine."

The acid test begins on 7 October, when the firm will release an initial run of 23 million Wispas at 42p a pop. Back in 1981, when it was all fields round here, Wispa was released in the north east under the slogan "Bite it and Believe it" - for a rather more modest 16p. ®

Bootnote

*The suspicious among you might imagine this stunt was arranged by Cadbury to drum up a bit of interest in the relaunch. Not so, says Bilsborough, who insisted: "There has been no Machiavellian plan, I can assure you."

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