Twinkies Are Back! Now What?
As the 83-year-old snack returns to shelves, the road ahead may not be soft and spongy
When Hostess Twinkies return to store shelves next month, they’ll epitomize one of branding’s rarest feats: a return from the dead. But while the snack’s resurgence (courtesy of a $410 million fire-sale buyout by Apollo Global Management) will doubtless make snack hounds happy, the legendary brand still has its work cut out for it. Indeed, according to observers, after the hoopla fades, Twinkies may well face a kind of branding Catch-22. Hardcore fans aren’t enough in number to sustain the snack food in perpetuity, while its troublesome nutrition label (220 mg of sodium in one cake?) may well be a hard sell for younger, health-conscious buyers. So while today’s story is that Twinkies are back, tomorrow’s may well be: How long will they stay?
