This early commercial takes us back very close to the beginning. Ho Hos were introduced in 1967 after first being made by hand in a San Francisco bakery, with mass production following soon afterward. Ding Dongs arrived that same year, making 1967 a pretty important one for the Hostess snack aisle
I like how simple this commercial is. Long before Hostess surrounded its cakes with cartoon characters, the selling point was basically right there on the screen — chocolate cake rolled around crème filling, covered in chocolate, and the promise that “you get a big delight in every bite”
A few years later Hostess advertising became much more colorful. Happy Ho Ho arrived as a little Robin Hood-style character with a feathered cap, bow and arrows, joining Twinkie the Kid, Captain Cupcake, King Ding Dong and the rest of the Hostess gang. (popicon.life)
And Ho Hos certainly caught on. By their 40th anniversary in 2007, Americans were eating around 100 million a year. Pittsburgh was even declared the Ho Ho capital of America, eating more per person than any other city
The brand has survived quite a journey since this commercial. Hostess shut down in 2012 and Ho Hos disappeared from stores for a while, but new owners brought the familiar cakes back nationwide in 2013. Today Hostess is owned by the J M Smucker Company
For something that started as a hand-produced little cake in a San Francisco bakery, Ho Hos certainly became part of a lot of lunchboxes
Were you a Ho Hos kid, or did you reach for Twinkies or Ding Dongs instead?
