Lookin at food: The Story of Twinkies

Well it's blogging time again, and today its another entry of Lookin at Food, where I take a look at a food that I’ve tried and discuss my thoughts on it. However this entry is going to start differently than the other as its not starting with the food in question, it starts with an illustration:

This is a political cartoon created by Nick Anderson for a 2012 issue of the Huston Chronicle newspaper. As you can see, It depicts a group of rabid campaigners under a giant banner bearing the words “Save the Twinkie”, and next to this large group are two people, standing alone, under a much smaller “Save the Earth” sign, of which the male says in a speech bubble, "We're Doomed.".

Now why am I showing you this? Because I once was shown this image in an English class my senior year of high school, and at the time I made the comment, "The Twinkie isn't going away.". However at the time, I was unaware that there was more to this image than meets the eye. While it is meant to tell the message of the American public efforts in standing up for seemingly unimportant things, this was created in response to something that actually almost happened. 

You see, this image comes from 2012 as I've mentioned and at the time, Hostess was about to go bankrupt and the Twinkie, as well as other Hostess treats, were on the verge of discontinuation. In fact, the situation was so severe for die hard fans that a box of Twinkies could sell for over $250,000 on Ebay. For a treat that that had been around since the Great Depression and had survived multiple wars, a threat of nuclear attack, and their manufacturer filing bankruptcy twice with employees and striking against them, The Twinkie was seeming at the end of its life. 

So how did this happen and how was this iconic little yellow slice of America saved from extinction? In order to answer that question we go back to the beginning. This is the story of Twinkies.

The story begins with a man, some strawberry shortcakes, and a wagon. In 1920, a man named James Dewar began his career at the Continental Baking Company in Schiller Park, Illinois at the age of 23 as a delivery driver. Each day, he would take loads of cream-filled strawberry shortcakes, load them into a horse drawn wagon, and deliver them all over the town. He did his job quite well, and ten years later in 1930, he was promoted all the way up to bakery plant manager. 

James Dewar in 1980

However, there was a problem. As the Great Depression hit, He came to a realization, They were losing potential sales. The reason was because when strawberries went out of season, the plant’s machinery used to make the shortcakes stopped and the expensive pans lied empty. Luckily, he came up with a solution. If they could replace the strawberries with bananas, then the production could continue year round. Inspired by a billboard for the Twinkle Toe Shoe Company he saw on a business trip, He called his snack cakes Twinkies and the treat made its debut on  April 6, 1930. 

An early ad for Twinkies (1930)

The treat proved to be a massive hit at a time when stores were boarding up nation-wide, and families were losing everything, especially money to buy food to eat, The Twinkie seemed to be a welcoming treat to provide nourishment in a dark time. But as the 1940s rolled around the snack cake got an unexpected ingredient change when America entered World War II. To support the troops in Europe and the Pacific, Soon after, The U.S. government began rationing a list of foods in short supply to ensure everyone got their fair share. And on that list was one of the key ingredients of Twinkies, Bananas. 

A photo of a fruit stand without bananas in the UK (Circa 1940s) (Trivia: The Banana rations had effected the UK severely too. In fact, many children had never had even seen bananas!)

Without one of Its key ingredients, the company was forced to make a risky move, switch the banana cream to vanilla cream. It could have severely hurt sales, but they had no other option. luckily for them, nobody seemed to mind and the change was successful. In fact, the new vanilla filling was so popular that even when bananas were available again, they decide to make the change permanent. The success continued into the next decade as well. As more and more TV sets began to fill homes in the 1950s, Continental decided to increase the awareness of Twinkies by partnering with one of the first children’s shows on TV, and arguably the most popular of its time: “The Howdy Doody Show” Not only did the show air ads for Twinkies, but the host, Buffalo Bob, encouraged kids to ask their moms to buy them. 

A Twinkies sponsor segment in The Howdy Doody Show (1958)

It seemed like Twinkies were on top of the world and that success continued to grow, even in dark times. As the 1960s rolled around, The Cold War began. Nations became torn between the United States and the Soviet Union, It became a battle of East vs. West. And every day, the threat of a nuclear war seemed to be a frighteningly real possibility for average people. In these uncertain times, the U.S. government urged citizens to duck and cover and prepare for possible nuclear attacks.  So, many Americans decided to built bomb shelters in their backyards or under their homes and stockpiled supplies and food. 

The family of Navy Lt. Cmdr. Thomas W. Robinson preparing to enter an underground bomb shelter at Parks Air Force Base near Pleasanton, Calif. (1960)

As they thought about being stuck in a dark, underground, concrete room for an uncertain amount of time, they began looking for food with a long shelf life, and many turned to Twinkies. With their claim of “stay fresh forever”, and their sweet, fluffy flavor, Twinkies were an inviting treat in a dark time. 

In the 1970s, Continental ramped up its marketing campaign for Twinkies even further with a new mascot. Denny Lesser, a route delivery driver for Hostess in San Fernando Valley, California, designed the perfect mascot for the brand to use during a traveling promotional campaign. It was an anthropomorphic Twinkie clad in a classic cowboy outfit with boots, a 10-gallon hat, a heart-covered handkerchief around his neck and a trusty lasso, The character was called Twinkie the Kid and he had a look that screamed “America”. His wife made a costume of the character for lesser to use in the campaign, and eventually became the brands official mascot appearing in TV adverts shortly afterward. 

An ad for Twinkies featuring Twinkie the Kid (1971)

But Continental didn't stop there, as they ramped up its marketing campaign even further. From 1975 to 1982, they stuck licensing deals with DC, Marvel, Archie, Harvey, and Gold Key Comics to feature humorous ads in their comics featuring their respective characters. Soon, Superman was saving kids stuck in a gold mine being awarded Twinkies afterward, Captain America was stopping a Roman army sent to the present from a time warp bent on conquering America by offering Twinkies, Archie and Jughead were cheering up a losing baseball team with Twinkies, Casper was stopping a monster from stealing Twinkies sponge cakes, and Tweety Bird was foiling Sylvester's plan of eating him by using a Twinkie to trap him. 

Various comic ads for Twinkies (1975-1982)

By that point, the Twinkie started to make appearances in movies as well. The first was in the 1979 comedy film The Jerk starring comedian Steve Martin (In his film debut). In the film, theres a scene where Martin's character, Navin, is celebrating his 21st birthday with his adopted African-American family and is served favorite meal: A tuna fish salad sandwich on white bread with mayonnaise, a Tab cola, and a couple of Twinkies. other notable examples include of course the famous scene in Ghostbusters where Dr. Egon Spengler (played by late great Harold Ramis), is trying to explain to Winston Zeddemore (played by Ernie Hudson) an analogy to represent the unusually high level of psychokinetic energy in New York City, In Die Hard its the favorite treat of Officer Al Powell (played by Reginald VelJohnson), who is seen eating the snack cake throughout the film, In Monster Squad, The character Eugene (played by Michael Faustino) is about to eat a Twinkie until his beagle Pete knocks it out of his hand, falls into the lake, and is snatched by the Gilman to which he explains to his friend in an adorable voice "The creature stole my Twinkie!",  In Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, when the titular duo (Played by Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves respectively) travel back to the days of Genghis Khan (Played by Al Leong), they offer him a Twinkie, In UHF, George Newman (Played by "Weird Al" Yankovic) offers a Twinkie Wiener Sandwich to cheer up his best friend Bob Steckler (Played by David Bowe), InThe Iron Giant, Hogarth Hughes (Voiced by Eli Marienthal) makes a "Turbo Twinkie" (Twinkies injected with whip cream, based on an actual snack director Brad Bird made when he was young) while watching a B movie on TV, In WALL-E, the namesake robot protagonist (Voiced by Ben Burtt), gives his cockroach pet a Twinkie to sleep in (A nod to the “stay fresh forever” claim), and in Zombieland, the character Tallahassee (played by Woody Harrelson) hunts for Twinkies throughout the film as a "side quest" while fighting the wave of zombies, Much to the dismay of Columbus (played by Jesse Eisenberg). 

Some of the many movies featuring Twinkies (1979-2009)

In 1984, the same year the Twinkie made its mark in Ghostbusters, Continental was purchased by the Ralston Purina company for  $475 million dollars, With Ralston holding the Twinkies reign until 1995, when they sold it to Interstate Bakeries for $560 million dollars, Already a giant in the baking industry, Interstate’s merger with Continental made it the largest baking company in the U.S. Unfortunately as the 2000s approached, the company would be in trouble. With the growing popularity of diets like South Beach and Atkins, as well as the growing concern of obesity throughout the country, as Americans took issue with an ingredient list full of calories, sugar, and preservatives. On September 22, 2004, Interstate Bakeries filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy due to decreased sales, increased ingredient and pension costs, and an inefficient delivery systems.

But thanks to a powerful fan, the company would unexpectedly emerge from bankruptcy. New York senator Charles Schumer personally appealed to a big lender to save Interstate. In 2009, Ripplewood Holdings paid $130 million to take control of Interstate and renamed it Hostess Brands, However this victory was short lived. Just 3 years later, in 2012, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy again, due to adding debt, and selling products at a price that didn’t cover costs or return a profit. a few months later, employees nationwide went on strike. The Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers' International Union (BCTGM), representing 6,600 Hostess employees, took action after a contract proposal from Hostess Brands was rejected by 92 percent of its members. The public were also unhappy about the news, News outlets everywhere reported the death of Twinkies, They flew off store shelves, even those who never cared for them bought them.

It seemed like the Twinkie and its Hostess brethren were doomed, But luck was on their side. Andy Jhawar, another powerful fan of the snack cake and a senior partner at Apollo Global Management, saw the value of the nostalgia for Twinkies. So he reached out to Dean Metropoulos, the founder of Metropoulos & Company. 

Left to Right: Andy Jhawar and Dean Metropoulos.

Fortunately, Hostess’ bankruptcy resulted in a 363 asset sale, where a company sells all or part of its assets. So they could buy what they wanted, like Twinkies, Hostess’ recipes, and five Hostess factories, while leaving its inefficient delivery system behind. Apollo Global Management and Metropoulos & Company spent $410 million dollars for the acquisition, and in 2013, it paid off. Twinkies and its other hostess counterparts hit store shelves again across the U.S. alongside a viral “The Sweetest Comeback in the History of Ever” ad campaign, bringing in $555 million dollars in revenue. In 2014, the two took the company public valued at $2.3 billion dollars.

Today the Twinkie still remains an American icon and has been reference in a variety of movies and tv shows and has been a go to comfort food for many. It proves that for an iconic brand, no matter how many hardships it may face, it will never die. That wraps up this entry, Thanks for reading, See you next time!