10 responses to “A life without Twinkies?”

1. 

   JR Chaille January 18th, 2012 at 11:19

   Twinkies, and Hostess as a whole, need a revitalizing ad campaign. McDonalds and Oreos are equally unhealthy products, but they have good commercials with catchy tunes, sticky slogans, and often a celebrity cameo. The Twinkie kid cowboy isn’t recognized by most of today’s children.
   My dad’s office was right next to a Hostess store when I was growing up, so I know they have high quality and uber delicious products. They just need to get their message out to the world.
   I would kill for one of the small apple pies right now, coated with a nice sugar glaze…mmmmmmmmm.

2. 

   Laila Lemcharfi January 18th, 2012 at 14:32

   I use to eat Twinkies alot in elementary school. Now I’m 21 and I can’t even remember when I had a Twinkie. I think the younger generation is use to eating sweet treats like Twinkies. In school, however, kids are taught to avoid unhealthy food and choose fruits or yogurt instead as a snack. Perhaps that’s why the popularity has gone down. Twinkies are a “classic”, but with today’s rise in obesity and health concerns, maybe some people are trying to avoid small, sugary treats that don’t fill you up.

3. 

   Caleb Hsu January 18th, 2012 at 15:49

   I am currently 19 and remembering back to my childhood I never had Twinkies as often as other healthy snacks or fruits, this is because my parents would also look at the nutrition facts and see if a certain product is healthy or not. When I was little I use to see a lot of commercials about Twinkies but lately the commercial has declined almost to nonexistence. I think they need to find a new way to appeal to the kids.

4. 

   Melanie Ford January 18th, 2012 at 15:55

   I think it is sad to think that Hostess might be going away for forever, but seeing that they already filed for bankruptcy once and then they are filing again two years after shows something is wrong. Something needs to change with Hostess, they need to either update their products and make them more health conscious or update the way they market their products. Hostess has been depending too much on the fact that they are an iconic dessert. People, like myself, completely forget the fact that they even exist. There is hardly any advertising done for Hostess treats on TV or anything that I read. If Hostess wants to be a better competitor, they have to become more modern and up to date.

5. 

   Tej Rajendran January 18th, 2012 at 20:03

   To be honest, I have never eaten a twinkie in my life… but on the boardwalk (an amusement park on the beach in Santa Cruz California), A fried twinkie is probably one of the most bought snack items! As someone previously mentioned, yes America has gotten health conscious, but the taste of little kids has not changed. Hostess should have stayed on top of the trends of its customers and come out with a healthier alternative, organic perhaps?

6. 

   Emily Rybak January 18th, 2012 at 20:48

   Hostess is blaming a number of reasons for bankruptcy except themselves. Like others have stated, they have completely forgot about marketing their product to the people. There are no commercials or ads to even remind people that Hostess still exists. The blame on America going healthy is not completely true. Yes America is focusing on trying to be more healthy but other companies like McDonald’s and Oreo are not seeing a decline at all. If Hostess wants to stay in the game, they need to improve their marketing techniques!

7. 

   Joseph Debald January 18th, 2012 at 23:21

   To compare McDonalds to Hostess isn’t even fair, in my opinion. McDonalds marketing is GENIUS and will be on top for years to come. Their ability to attract children with happy meals, myself with the dollar menu, and then on top of all that, offer salads and yogurts to people who want a more healthy meal. They know who to target and how to target them. Hostess is irrelevant on tv, magazines, internet, etc. I can’t remember the last time I bought a Hostess snack.
   Ho-Hos > Twinkies anyway haha

8. 

   Lauren Gibbons January 19th, 2012 at 13:33

   I agree with the last comment. It’s hard to compare McDonalds and Hostess. In the tougher economy, McDonalds promoted its dollar menu. Also, when you consider what you’re getting at McDonalds (some form of protein usually) it offers more nutritional value than a twinkie or any hostess product for that matter. Finally, McDonalds also offers healthy choices now, such as snack wraps, and salads.

   Like previous posts mentioned, the younger generations have a vague idea what a twinkie is… but its an older product. That doesn’t compete with “fruit rollups” or other afterschool or lunch box snacks. at least fruit roll ups sound healthy.

   With the healthy eating movement, hostess needed to reposition their products to fit the trends and they stayed the same…

9. 

   Spencer Slaton January 21st, 2012 at 14:12

   There are a couple major differences between Hostess and McDonalds. While the US is starting to lean in a healthier direction, McDonalds serves as a cheap meal, especially for low income families. Hostess is simply a snack and serves a lot less of an important role in people’s everyday lives. In addition, McDonalds is a lot more wide spread (geographically) and has learned to adapt over time. McDonalds, unlike Hostess, is popular across the world and saw the health trend in enough time to add healthy menu choices and better the ones they already had. While, McDonalds certainly still makes the most revenue off its unhealthier items the addition of healthier items has certainly helped their image. Also, McDonalds has been able to take advantage of trends and jump into other markets. As higher quality burger chains (ex. Five Guys) began to get popular they increased the size/quality of some of their burgers (compare today’s Double Cheese burger to 6 years ago). Also, as a result of the increasing popularity of coffee and cafes (ex, Starbucks), McDonalds diversified and began moving into that market as well. At the end of the day, it’s no wonder why McDonalds hasn’t been affected.

   When comparing Hostess to Oreo I think the difference is truly perception. When people think of high calorie/unhealthy sweets cakes are the first to come to mind. Not to say that Oreos are great for you, but the small sweet cookies aren’t perceived as unhealthy as a Twinkie. If someone was on dieting, they would be a lot more likely to snack on a few harmless Oreos than a couple of Twinkie’s made from artificial products. It really is all about image/perception. Add that to the fact that Twinkie hasn’t made a commercial or altered their image in years, and you’ve got a recipe for disaster.

   When comparing Hostess to Oreo I think the difference is truly perception. When people think of high calorie/unhealthy foods alot of times cake based items are the first to come to mind. Not to say that Oreos are great for you, but the small sweet cookies aren’t percived as unhealthy as a twinkie. If someone was on a diet, they would be a lot more likely to eat a few harmless oreos, than a couple twinkie’s made from artfical products. It really is all about image/perception. Add that to the fact that Twinkie hasn comme’t made acommercial or altered their image in years and you’ve got a recipie for disaster.

10. 

    Lauren Jacobs January 23rd, 2012 at 22:14

    I was not surprised to read this article that Twinkies have gone way under compared to other unhealthy foods such as Oreos and Mcdonalds. I agree with many other people’s comments in the fact that Hostess did nothing to market a better product during this new healthy lifestyle trend. Nothing about a Twinkie is healthy or beneficial to people. I think Mcdonald’s has still done very well because even though it is very unhealthy, you get a whole “meal” rather than just a sugary snack. I believe the real reason that Twinkies and the company has filed for bankruptcy is not because their product is not healthy, it is because they did not properly market it to the public.