While my marketing students and I were lamenting the end of Hostess cakes as
we know them, a funny thing happened to tie together the most famous of the
products -- the Twinkie -- and the nature of destructive forces. But first, some
backstory.
After explaining to a group of foreign exchange students in the class what
these cakes were and then laughing when as a native-Texan claimed relief
that Little Debbie's cakes were spared (at least we were still a civilized
nation!) we, as a collective community began to lament the end of the
Twinkie.
Besides the concern that we should all leave our NYC classroom and get some
Hostess and Drakes cakes quickly, there was some nostalgia associated with the
little yellow sponge cake with cream filling. I had, not less than 24 hours
earlier, heard radio commentary about how a straw could extract the cream though
the three holes in the bottom of the cake easily -- something I don't think I'd
ever considered.
But the best part was my recollection of the
Chevy Silverado 2012 Superbowl
ad that, post-Sandy, is hard to watch -- but puts of all things, the Twinkie, to
full use.
In it, the world is destroyed, the Chevy Silverado drivers are safe and the
guy who drove a Ford -- not so good. But love or hate this commercial -- watch
the food of choice -- offered up by one survivor at the near end of the spot.
Product placement? No, that's when the Twinkie would have been included in a
television show or movie. So how, my students wondered, did they get the Twinkie
in the commercial for a truck? A smart creative idea, the permission by Hostess
(that is what I suspect) and a gutsy end that was testament to the old idea that
Twinkies are indestructible too.
Better stock up for the next decades before it's too late.
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