Ding Dong
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- For the animated cat character Ding Dong, see Doraemon. "Ding dong" is also a euphemism for penis in some areas.
A Ding Dong is a chocolate snack cake sold in the United States under the Hostess brand name, which is owned by Interstate Bakeries Corporation. The snack was originally known in the Eastern United States as a King Dong and later a King Don. In some areas it was marketed as a Big Wheel.
The chocolate cake is round with a flat top and bottom, similar in shape to a hockey puck. It is about three inches in diameter and a little more than an inch high. A white cream filling is injected into the center, and a thin coating of chocolate glaze covers the entire cake. The cake was originally wrapped in a square of thin tin foil, enabling it to be carried and packed in lunches without melting the chocolate glaze.
The Ding Dong was first marketed by Hostess in 1967. The name was given to coincide with a television ad campaign featuring a ringing bell. The company marketed the snacks on the East Coast as Big Wheels, to avoid confusion with the Ring Ding, a similar (and pre-existing) treat by Drake's Cakes. The names were consolidated in 1987, when a short-lived merger between Hostess' and Drake's parent companies briefly resolved the Ring Ding/Ding Dong conflict. When the merged company broke up, however, Hostess was forced to cease, once again, using the Ding Dongs name in areas where Ring Dings were available. The compromise sound-alike name King Dons lasted until Interstate Bakeries Corporation, Hostess' parent company, bought Drake's in 1998. The Hostess product is now sold under the name Ding Dongs throughout the United States. However, the snack is still sold as the King Don in Canada.
Like Twinkie's Twinkie The Kid and Hostess Fruit Pies' Fruit Pie the Magician, Hostess created a cartoon character to advertise the Ding Dong: an anthropomorphized Ding Dong sporting a crown and sceptre named "King Ding Dong". In the eastern secondary market selling King Dons, the character was, like the product, known as King Don.
