Coffee and orange flavour Revels face a battle for survival this summer as they go head to head in a Big Brother-style eviction.

Mars UK is giving consumers the chance to vote out their least-favourite Revel to be replaced by a new, mystery flavour. The coffee and orange varieties are hot favourites for the chop.

"Coffee and Orange are the two variants that consumers always talk about," said Mars trade relations manager Bep Sandhu. "They are our Marmite flavours, if you like. You either love them or hate them."

The four other Revels variants - caramel, raisin, Minstrel and Malteser - were likely to avoid the axe, the company said.

Limited-edition 'eviction' packs hit shelves in the second week of July, backed by a £2m campaign, which will encourage consumers to vote online to save their favourite flavour.

The Revel with the least number of votes on 9 September will be evicted from the pack for a limited time to be replaced by a mystery flavour, which the company is keeping under wraps. New mystery sweet packs will be available from November.

Mars has long highlighted the fact its orange and coffee flavours are not to everyone's tastes.

Its most recent television advertising campaign has a Russian roulette theme in which competitors aim to avoid eating either of the flavours.

A new version of this advert, due to break on 14 July, will support the campaign, said Sandhu.

Latest sales figures from IRI show sales of Revels up 3% in value to more than £38m. The £464m bitesize category is dominated by Mars, which boasts four of the top five brands in Maltesers, M&M's, Minstrels and Revels.

The Revels eviction is the latest example of consumer enfranchisement. Cadbury claimed the decision to relaunch its Wispa brand was the result of a high-profile Facebook campaign while Mars recently relaunched Opal Fruits as a limited edition citing consumers' new-found lust for childhood favourites.

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