Cheese from a can. Spaghetti from a spoon. And yogurt on the go. We all can admit that convenience and junk food go hand in hand. So let's take a walk down memory lane... or the grocery aisle.
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00:00Cheese from a can, spaghetti from a spoon, and yogurt on the go. We all can admit that convenience
00:06and junk food go hand in hand, so let's take a walk down memory lane — or the grocery aisle.
00:12When you think of cheese and crackers, you may imagine a trendy cheese board fit for an Instagram
00:17story. But in 1953, Cheez Whiz on crackers became the norm for a cheese and cracker pairing.
00:22This saucy cheese in a can grew to be a grab-and-go staple. Kraft promoted Cheez Whiz as,
00:27"...cheese treats quick. Spoon it, heat it, spread it."
00:30Two essential items played a role in the growth of Cheez Whiz — convenience
00:34and longer shelf life. In post-World War II America, comfort was key,
00:38and what better way to save time than staying out of the kitchen and eating cheese out of a jar?
00:42Few junk food snacks compare to the timeless favorite, the Twinkie. In 1930, James Dewar
00:47felt inspired to fill cakes with a sugar-cream mixture from bakery molds for shortcakes sold
00:51during strawberry season. Thus, the golden sponge cake filled with a creamy filling
00:55came to be as we know it. It wasn't until the 1950s when Twinkies' popularity soared.
01:00As Hostess sponsored the very popular Howdy Doody show, the commercial advertisement emphasized how
01:04they melt in your mouth like cotton candy. So what kid wouldn't want this in their school lunch?
01:09"'Kids, look here. Clarabelle has his whole lunch box just filled with Hostess Twinkies.'"
01:15Did you know the candy we know today as Peeps originally had wings? That's right. In 1953,
01:20Just Born acquired Rata Candy Company, which originally made the candy we know today as Peeps.
01:25But in 1955, the brand decided to clip the wings for good,
01:29speeding up the process to meet the uptick in demand for the popular marshmallow candy.
01:33Peeps caught on in a big way and have stood the test of time,
01:36still making an appearance every year around every holiday.
01:40The Kentucky Fried Chicken chain restaurant we know and love came from humble beginnings.
01:44Founder Colonel Sanders bought a roadside motel in Corbin, Kentucky,
01:47and started serving his fried chicken out of it in 1930. The restaurant took off for the
01:51next couple of decades until a new freeway junction forced traffic away from the fried
01:55chicken restaurant. But in 1956, Colonel Sanders wisely decided to go into the franchise business,
02:00successfully bringing cheap fried chicken to the masses.
02:04In the middle of the Great Depression, Little Debbie founder O.D. McKee started experimenting
02:08with oatmeal cookies in the shop he worked in. After altering the recipe, he took two soft
02:12cookies and sandwiched them together with a cream filling. These cream pies grew in popularity and
02:17sold for a nickel each. The McKee Baking Company started in the early 1950s, but it wasn't until
02:22around a decade later, after the McKee family purchased King's Bakery and opened a modern
02:26manufacturing plant, that they pioneered the family pack, creating a deal for 12-count cakes.
02:31Twelve cakes are better and more profitable than one, which brought in a wave of new customers.
02:36Tastes as good as homemade, Chips Ahoy advertised its cookies as such,
02:39propelling them into popularity. In 1963, Nabisco released their famous homemade-tasting cookies,
02:45and today, they remain the second favorite cookie in the United States behind Oreos.
02:49Nabisco took inspiration for their cookies from the original Toll House chocolate chip
02:52cookie recipe, but it was their promise of tasting homemade with the production
02:56and shelf life from a factory that added to their fame.
03:00Convenience is everything, and that's why Kellogg's chairman, William E. Lamothe,
03:04sought to create a delicious, toaster-friendly to-go breakfast option. He partnered with
03:08Joe Thompson and created the Breakfast Hack for toast and jam, and thus, Pop-Tarts were born.
03:12According to the Pop-Tarts website, in 1964, Pop-Tarts released the original
03:16four flavors in Cleveland, Ohio. After the strawberry, blueberry,
03:20brown sugar cinnamon, and apple flavors took off, the brand went nationwide in 1965.
03:25Whether born in the 60s or the 21st century, Pop-Tarts remain a favorite for kids in the morning.
03:30Did you know SpaghettiOs did so well in product testing with moms and kids
03:34that Campbell's decided to bypass any regional test marketing and go straight
03:38to national distribution in 1965? Unlike any product before it, SpaghettiOs marketed itself
03:43as the world's first spoonable spaghetti. It grew in popularity immediately after launching.
03:48The first SpaghettiOs TV commercial in 1965 also debuted the original slogan.
03:52"...the greatest invention since the napkin."
03:55Not long after Disneyland opened up for business, Frito-Lay Snack Company opened Casa de los Fritos
04:00inside the park. This Mexican-style restaurant in Disneyland's Frontierland got tortillas from
04:05the local tortilla factory Alex Foods. The store realized many tortillas ended up in the trash,
04:09so in an effort to save the leftover food, they cut them up and fried them into chips. By 1966,
04:15people everywhere had cheese powder on their fingertips, and Doritos were born.
04:19Hunt's Snack Pack Snack grew in popularity with the launch of its own mascot, a horse cleverly
04:24named Snack Pack. Parents loved the treats because they could last longer than prior-launched pudding
04:28products. In the early years of development, the brand advertised to open carefully and not handle
04:33the lid or inner can rim for safety reasons. After this, Hunt's replaced the horse with Snack
04:37Pack Jack, who endorsed the child-safe lid. Today, Pizza Hut has more than 16,000 restaurants and
04:43350,000 employees in more than 100 countries. This incredible growth started only in 1958,
04:49when the brand opened the first Pizza Hut restaurant in Wichita, Kansas,
04:52and the brand really hit its strides in the early 1970s. It was 1971 when Pizza Hut became
04:58the number one restaurant chain in the world in both sales and number of restaurants.
05:02In the 1960s, Pringles struggled, and the wild success the brand enjoys today was out of reach.
05:07The brand nearly flopped, but after improving on the recipe, the chip made a crazy comeback.
05:12After reconstructing the recipe, Pringles became one of the most popular brands of
05:15potato chips in the world today. The chip remains a favorite today, and we understand why.
05:20The shape and storage of the chip created a fresh and intact chip every time.
05:24Get him!
05:26Grandma, what's going on?
05:27Pringles! We're trapped in a Pringles commercial! They must have taken us in our sleep!
05:31In 1974, Pop Rocks made their way to the market, and for years after,
05:35kids could not get enough of this unique candy concoction. Ask anyone who grew up in the 70s,
05:40they understand the hype. Pop Rocks' earliest beginnings date back to the 1950s,
05:44when general foods chemist William Mitchell experimented with creating an instant soft
05:48drink. This clearly failed and left the chemist with sweet candy bits that would pop inside one's
05:52mouth. Tostitos began finding their way to store shelves in 1978 and continued to grow in
05:58popularity for years after. Tostitos' traditional and nacho cheese flavors hit national distribution
06:03after successful test marketing in 1979. By the early 1980s, the flavors went into national
06:09distribution with sales numbers that led Frito-Lay to declare it one of the most successful
06:13new products the company had ever launched. This bite-sized candy grew in popularity after
06:18being featured in the 1982 movie E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. In the legendary scene,
06:23Elliot lures E.T. with a trail of Reese's Pieces. M&M was originally set to be the
06:27candy of choice, but Mars Incorporated refused permission to Spielberg. After the movie's success,
06:32Hershey made a deal with production to promote E.T. with $1 million. As a result,
06:36Reese's Pieces' sales jumped 65 percent after the opening of the sci-fi movie.
06:41The first bite might be sour, but this candy is certainly sweet after a couple of chews.
06:45Sour Patch Kids grew in popularity when the brand switched the shape from Martians,
06:49capitalizing on the space craze of the 1970s, to Cabbage Patch Kids to match the dolls fandom
06:54in the 80s. The candy continues to reign supreme today with its popular tagline,
06:58first they're sour, then they're sweet. The promotional advertisements show the little
07:01kid candy figures committing small acts of hostility before their demeanor changes
07:05and they become sweet. Teddy Grahams launched in 1988 and sold more than $150 million in the
07:11first year. They hit the ground running and launched three flavors at once — chocolate,
07:15cinnamon, and honey. After its introduction, Teddy Grahams climbed its way up the snack ladder to
07:20become the third most popular cookie on the market. The cute and tasty cookies made record-breaking
07:24sales at introduction, securing the title of most popular cookie release in a quarter of a century.
07:30What's better than a bite-sized pizza bite? We're sure the inventors of Totino's Pizza Rolls
07:34thought something similar when crafting these delicious rolls. Pizza rolls make for an easy
07:38and savory lunch or dinner, and obviously a perfect snack. While the tiny pizza bites came
07:42out in 1968, the brand grew in popularity after Pillsbury bought the rights in 1985.
07:47Just about everyone loves pizza, so how can you not have a soft spot for Totino's Pizza Rolls?
07:52What a winner! Mmm, the irresistible taste of pizza in this hot little bite-sized snack.
07:59Skittles first lived across the pond before coming to North America in 1979.
08:03It took three years of importing the candy from Britain before Skittles started being
08:07manufactured in the United States. Compared to all the flavors we know and love today,
08:11Skittles only offered grape, orange, strawberry, lemon, and lime flavors at the time. Although the
08:15brand gained traction in the early 90s, it wasn't until 1994 that the famous slogan
08:20Taste the Rainbow made its debut and became one of the longest-running advertising campaigns.
08:25Push Pop made its way to market in 1986, and especially took off in the 1990s. The 1994
08:30Push Pop commercial propelled the candy further into popularity with an appearance from movie
08:35actor Ryan Reynolds. It was so popular, the triple-power Push Pop variation created a way
08:39to lick three flavors at the same time in one Push Pop. Nothing can compete with the blue raspberry,
08:44watermelon, and strawberry trifecta, as it allowed fans to easily eat one at a time,
08:48or all three together.
08:50What's better than cake for breakfast? How about cookies in your cereal? Oreo did just that with
08:55the debut of the Oreo O's cereal. The cereal debuted in 1998, followed by a decade of success.
09:01A few years later, in 2001, Oreo O's recipe received a makeover to add real cream filling
09:06and made the cereal taste like the classic Oreo cookie. Although seemingly well-received,
09:10the product vanished from most shelves around 2007, though it has come back since then.
09:15If you learn anything from the evolution of American food products,
09:18it's that convenience is certainly key. Food scientists at General Mills in the early 90s
09:23clearly felt the same, as they set out to prove that yogurt could be put in a tube.
09:26After rounds of testing and recipe altering, Go-Gurt as we know it hit shelves in 1998
09:31as part of a regional test. The product was such a hit in school lunchboxes that,
09:35according to General Mills, Time dubbed it the fastest-selling yogurt product ever released.
09:39Hey, loose food.
09:42News don't play Go-Gurt, the grab-and-go yogurt.
09:45General Mills first began working on the idea of fruit snacks in 1975,
09:49and the treats really took off in the 1990s. A favorite was the Scooby-Doo fruit snacks,
09:54released in the late 1990s and getting an added boost when the cartoon What's New Scooby-Doo
09:58premiered in 2002. Betty Crocker's Scooby-Doo fruit snacks might just be one of the most
10:03iconic and delicious fruit snacks of our time.
10:06Kids and adults alike loved Trix yogurt, which helped it secure our most popular junk food
10:10slot in 2004. The brand successfully marketed to multiple generations, setting it apart from other
10:15snacks and food products. The brand kicked off as a lunchbox favorite in the 90s. Then,
10:19Trix held special contests in 1995, 1996, 1997, and 2004 to find the silliest kid in America,
10:26which kept the brand on TV screens and in the hearts and minds of kids looking to
10:30be affiliated with the brand. Kid Cuisine moved units by bridging the gap between parents and
10:35kids at mealtime. These easy meals sought to make dinner fun with animal-shaped nuggets,
10:40mac and cheese, and dessert offerings. In the early 2000s, kids knew a good meal was
10:44coming when they saw that signature blue dinner tray. While the brand wasn't exactly healthy in
10:48its earlier iterations, ConAgra brands moved to make it more nutritious in 2005.