Twinkie, the Everlasting

How a common snack cake took on bankruptcy and won

By: Megan Gartrell, Staff Writer

The Twinkie is set to make a return this month, after more than half a year off the shelves. Its disappearance in November — due to financial problems of its parent company, Hostess — took North American by so much surprise that it made headlines for days on end.

It’s hard to image any snack cake rising to the status of iconic — which is what makes the Twinkie so intriguing. Despite grocery store shelves stocked high with organic, low-fat, gluten-free products and mass pushes towards health and wellness in our schools and homes, the Twinkie remains. Like a whispered legend among generations, its appeal has stood the test of time.

Nestled in their packaging at convenience stores, Twinkie’s are a go-to snack for children and adults alike. Love them, or hate them, you’ve heard of them.

Twinkies also appear where you least expect them: murder and bribery trials, wedding cakes, blogs and numerous references in any movie or television show involving nuclear attack thanks to the urban legends surrounding their shelf life. So, how did these tiny confectionary cakes come to be? In order to uncover why they have had such lasting power one must travel back to the 1930s.

How the Twinkie was Born

The Continental Baking Company in Indianapolis introduced Twinkies in 1933. James A. Dewar, a baking manager at Hostess’ Chicago plant, is its credited inventor.

Some products were seasonal, which meant machines often sat idle for months on end. Dewar wanted a simple treat that could use that equipment, and so the Twinkie was born.

He came up with the name after driving past a billboard with an ad for shoes from the Twinkle Toe Shoe Company.

He first injected the little golden cakes with banana crème filling but the Second World War brought with it a banana shortage, so in the 1940s, the filling switched to vanilla crème.

The Twinkie itself measures four inches long and an inch and a half wide. The spongy yellow cake is moist and light and satisfies sugar lovers.

Today’s Twinkie has a much longer shelf life than the ones made in 1930, but not as long as doomsdayers would hope. A Twinkie’s shelf life is officially 25 days according to Snopes.com. Even though the list of ingredients is a mouthful, it is a misconception that Twinkies are chemically preserved. Replacing eggs, butter and fats with monoglycerides, hydrogenated shortening, and cellulose gum is what keeps Twinkies from going rancid, but they aren’t strictly preservatives. What keeps the Twinkie freshest has more to do with the airtight packaging than what is inside.

 Brand Power

One of the reasons the Twinkie has lasted all these years is persuasive advertising. Like all big companies, Hostess clearly understood how important it was to create a persona and personality that accompanied the Twinkie. This wasn’t simply a dessert; this was a snack movement. It started in the 1950s when Hostess used live television ads. Nostalgia plays an important role in many Twinkie lovers’ memories.

Curled up on the carpet in front of the television watching the Howdy Doody Show, cowboy hats tilted forward, big smiles as Mom waltzes in with a big glass of milk and two Twinkies resting on a plate.

In an old YouTube clip of the show you can watch Buffalo Bob Smith whipping up a batch of Twinkies and telling kids to beg their Moms for some of their own. Even Howdy himself shows kids how to find Twinkies in the grocery store. Popular taglines rang out, “the snack with a snack in the middle,” and “you get a big delight in every bite.”

These ads led to the creation of Twinkie the Kid, the cylindrical wrangler in a cowboy hat, has been a mainstay mascot for the snack cakes’ advertising for decades. The year 2005 brought a modernization of the kid. He’s jazzed up a bit now, resembling more of a brighter, cartoonish version of the original sketch.

Twinkies became a household name. They were deep-fried at state fairs and made cameos in movies like “Ghost Busters” and “Die Hard.”

In 1996, Ad agency Campbell Mithun helped develop “Critters,” a television ad that features a bear who mistakes a gold-coloured mobile home for a Twinkie and when he rips into the roof is disappointed to find humans inside.

He asked, “Hey, where’s the cream filling?”

Hostess also created effective tongue and cheek commercials during the London 2012 Olympic frenzy. In these clever ads they showed average athletes failing miserably at sport. A golden Twinkie appears after the words, “reach for the gold,” and the message, “not a sponsor” follows.

Even President Bill Clinton put a Twinkie in the White House Millennium Council’s time capsule alongside a piece of the Berlin Wall, a WWII helmet and a pair of Ray Charles’ sunglasses.

Not all the attention was positive. The term “Twinkie defense” came out of the 1979 murder trail of Dan White, whose lawyers included his obsession with junk food like Twinkies and Coca Cola among the evidence of his altered state of mind.

Even Bankruptcy Could Not Keep those Airy Treats Down

Twinkies were front-page news in the United States after Hostess Brands Inc. filed for bankruptcy in November after an extended standoff with the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union.

Consumers flocked to stores to clean out stock and there was an outpouring of woe dominating online chats with #LongLiveTheTwinkie! appearing on Twitter and Twinkies being sold at the jaw-dropping price of thousands of dollars on Craigslist and Ebay. There was even a petition campaign to ask President Obama to help save the Twinkie.

But it wasn’t long before the public’s cry was heard and the problem rectified. A bankruptcy judge approved the sale of Twinkies and other Hostess brands to two investment firms, Apollo Global Management and Metropoulous & Co. for $410 million. Dean Metropoulous, the 66-year-old founder of the firm will serve as CEO. But he is leaving the revitalizing of the Twinkie Empire to his two sons—Dareen, 29, and Evan, 32.

These new bosses are excited for the future of Twinkies and promise to have the cakes back in consumers’ hands by the summer.

Evan Metropoulous told the Wall Street Journal, “We have a million A-list celebrities and athletes and so forth that are dying to be associated with the Hostess brands like Twinkies.”

He is hoping funny men Will Ferrell and Zak Galifanakis might sign on with quirky, viral ad campaigns. By using celebrities, they hope to reach a larger, younger audience.

To Time magazine, Darren Metropoulous said, “I think a lot of it will be guerrilla marketing that we’ve done with many other brands in the past, building on the retro nostalgia of these brands. Certainly there will be an element of social media marketing, through Twitter, through Facebook, through Instagram, to really get some great viral buzz.”

Despite the financial struggles of the Hostess Brands in the past, the Metropoulos’ are confident that saving the Twinkie is a savvy business investment.

Amid all the Twinkie hoarding panic, Canadians had little to worry about. The bankruptcy and sale of the brand did not carry over into the North. Canadian brands that own the licenses for Hostess products in Canada, like George Weston Ltd. and Saputo Inc., continued with their normal production levels of the tasty treat, and guarantee Twinkie snack time is not in jeopardy for Canucks.

Is the Twinkie Worth Saving?

Nutritionists wouldn’t mind if the Twinkie took a well-deserved hiatus. Each one packs around 150 calories. Many local bakeries are taking creative twists when it comes to reinventing old favourites like Twinkies, Ho Hos, and Ding Dongs. But this means the use of fresh products, while delicious and healthier, are not as cost effective.

It begs the question should Apollo Global Management and Metropoulous & Co. try to produce a cake that harkens back to the 1930s original or stick to the old “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it” motto? Does the profit of nostalgia alone justify the continuation of something bad for consumers?

Changes to the iconic brand could destroy the nostalgia factor, something required at least for now if this brand wants to make a massive marketing push. Whatever direction these new entrepreneurs decide to go one thing is certain, the Twinkie is here to stay. Whether that is a good thing all depends on your taste buds.

Megan is a freelance writer/editor living in Victoria B.C. whose passions include fiction, poetry, music and dance.

Sources

Photo Courtesy to Orlando Sentinel & International Business Times