Lemonhead (candy)

In the 1980s, Lemonhead candy advertisements were mostly centered around sports. The commercials would largely follow a similar pattern and feature a children's sports team. The one player who made a mistake would be labeled the "lemonhead" [6]. In the 2010s, Lemonhead candy commercials also featured athletes as well as the Lemonhead mascot. The mascot was pictured alongside popular athletes scoring in games or otherwise achieving athletic success [7]. In 2014, the company rebranded the mascot to feature a more mature figure as the face of Lemonhead candies. This was met with controversy.

Lemonheads and other Ferrara candies served as the inspiration for Alana Ferrara's recently opened Sugar Estate at Breckenridge. The Estate is a luxury cabin decorated with Ferrara candies, including Lemonheads. Artist Andy Thomas painted 20 Lemonhead candies across the cabin to inspire guests to find them all [8].

In 2014 it was reported that Lemonhead candies were undergoing a rebrand that included updated packaging and a new mascot. While the company's marketing department said the mascot would be losing his little boy image, the mascot came under heavy scrutiny for supposedly appearing “creepy” and for lacking appropriate social media savvy [9]. The public largely agreed and the new mascot became the subject of ridicule across popular social media platforms.

Ferrara Candy Company came under fire in 2017 because of their Lemonheads due to the opaque packaging. A lawsuit was filed claiming that customers had been deceived into believing there was more product in the boxes than there actually were because of the packaging. The Ferrara Candy Company settled for $2.5 million with the plaintiff and agreed to provide cash payment for those who were impacted and to modify quality control procedure. [10].