Penguins are milk chocolate-covered biscuit bars filled with chocolate cream. They are produced by United Biscuits' manufacturing division McVitie's.
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History
They were first produced in 1932 by William McDonald, a biscuit manufacturer in Glasgow, and became a McVitie's brand when McDonald joined with McVitie's and Price, MacFarlane Lang & Co and Crawford to form United Biscuits in 1948.
Each wrapper has a joke or "funny fact" printed on it and imaginative, often humorous designs featuring penguins that often pastiche famous works of art.
In October 1996, Penguins were the subject of a court case between Asda and United Biscuits, who accused Asda of passing off their own brand "Puffin" biscuits as part of the Penguin brand. In March 1997, the court found in favour of United Biscuits regarding passing off, but found that Asda had not infringed the Penguin trademark. United Biscuits itself has been criticised for continuing to use trans fatty acids in the cream filling of Penguins. By December 2007, United Biscuits began to advertise the absence of trans fats from the penguin, having removed the ingredient from this product line.
The Tim Tam produced by Arnott's in Australia was based on the Penguin. Occasional media references include tongue-in-cheek debates over which is the superior biscuit.
Types
There are four different variations of the biscuit. These are:
Spin-off brands
In 2003, McVitie's produced several "sub-brands" or variations of the Penguin biscuit, Penguin Chukkas, Wing Dings, Flipper Dipper, Splatz and Mini Splatz. These variations were accompanied by a £5 million promotional campaign. In 2008 McVitie's also produced Penguin triple chocolate wafers.