Ding Dong facts for kids
A Ding Dong is a tasty chocolate cake snack. It is made and sold in the United States by a company called Hostess Brands. In Canada, a company called Vachon Inc. sells a very similar snack called King Dons. Years ago, in some parts of the U.S., it was known as Big Wheels. Ding Dongs have been made almost continuously since 1967. They are round and flat, a bit like a hockey puck. Inside, they have a creamy white filling, and the outside is covered with a thin layer of chocolate glaze. When they were first made, Ding Dongs were wrapped in aluminum foil. This helped keep the chocolate from melting, especially if you packed one in your lunch!
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The Story of Ding Dongs
The Ding Dong is similar to other cream-filled cakes, like the Jos. Louis from Arcade Vachon, which came out even earlier. Hostess started selling its Ding Dong in 1967. The name "Ding Dong" was chosen because of a TV ad campaign. These ads featured a ringing bell, which made the name easy to remember.
Hostess Brands stopped making all its snacks on November 16, 2012, when the company went out of business for a short time. But don't worry, they came back! Two companies, Apollo Global Management and Metropoulos & Co., bought the Hostess name and its popular snacks. In June 2013, the new Hostess Brands reopened a factory in Kansas. They announced that Ding Dong production would start again on July 15, 2013. More recently, in September 2023, The J.M. Smucker Company bought Hostess.
Ding Dong vs. Ring Ding: A Naming Mix-Up
For a while, Hostess sold these snacks on the East Coast of the U.S. as "Big Wheels." This was to avoid confusion with "Ring Dings," a similar snack already sold by Drake's Cakes. The names were finally brought together in 1987. This happened when Drake's briefly joined with Hostess's parent company, Continental Baking Company. This short merger solved the "Ring Ding-Ding Dong" problem.
However, when the companies separated again, Hostess had to stop using the "Ding Dongs" name in places where "Ring Dings" were sold. So, they used a similar-sounding name: "King Dons." This lasted until 1998. That year, Interstate Bakeries Corporation, which had joined with Hostess's parent company, bought Drake's. After that, the Hostess snack was sold as "Ding Dongs" all across the United States. But in Canada, it is still known as "King Dons."
Fun Cartoon Characters
To help advertise Ding Dongs, Hostess created a fun cartoon character named King Ding Dong. He was a Ding Dong with a crown and a scepter, like a king! He was part of a group of Hostess characters. These included Captain Cupcake, Happy Ho Ho, Twinkie the Kid, Fruit Pie the Magician, and Chipper Brownie.
In places where the snack was called "King Dons," the character was also known as "King Don." And in areas that used the "Big Wheels" name, the character was once an Indian chief called "Chief Big Wheel."
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