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Whoppers, the chocolate-coated malted milk balls known for their iconic milk carton. Began its history as “Giants” before evolving into one of Hershey’s flagship products.
1939
The Overland Candy Company launched “Giants” in 1939, which became what we now know as Whoppers. The candy was made up of malted milk balls encased in chocolate coating and sold unwrapped. Giants were created during the Great Depression in an attempt to create an affordable confection that could do without costly individual wrappers. During this era, there was also a nationwide milk surplus—making the dairy commodity cheap and a useful addition to new milk chocolate products.
1949
Overland Candy Company merged with Chicago Biscuit Company and other firms in 1947 to become Leaf Brands. Soon after, the new organization rebranded Giants to “Whoppers” in 1949.
1950s
Whoppers were originally sold unwrapped in two pieces for a penny. But with the introduction of cellophane wrapping machines in the early 1950s, Leaf Brands began selling them as “Fivesomes” sold five for a cent. This was followed by the milk carton packaging that we all recognize today, and it became their trademark.
1970s
By the early 1970s, Whoppers faced competition from the likes of M&M, which were innovating with character-themed characters in their ads. So, Leaf Brands created “Howie the Whopper,” a cartoon cowboy mascot who became the face of Whoppers. Howie was an animated character who appeared in television commercials singing the jingle “Everybody loves Whoppers!.” Howie’s tenure as Whoppers’ mascot was brief, but he successfully helped the company differentiate itself in the market.
1996
Whoppers again changed hands twice—first in the 1960s when W.R. Grace acquired them from Leaf Brands, then again in 1976 when Leaf Brands rebought the iconic brand, but now under its parent Finnish company Huhtamäki Oyj. In 1996, The Hershey Company acquired Leaf North America’s confectionery operations, adding Whoppers to its growing candy empire after decades of corporate shuffling. Hershey paid $440 million for Leaf’s North American assets. This is roughly the retail value of 1.1 billion boxes of Whoppers in today’s dollars.
2000
A few years after its acquisition, The Hershey Company introduced Mini Whoppers, a smaller version of the classic malted milk balls. The miniaturized version required significant retooling of production equipment, as the traditional tumbling process had to be precisely calibrated to maintain the same malted-to-chocolate ratio in a smaller form.
2006-2009
In 2006, Hershey launched strawberry milkshake Whoppers. The first time, the candy had a different flavor. With the success of strawberry, the company launched three additional milkshake flavors in Easter of 2009:
They packaged these new flavors in their iconic milk carton packaging (a nod to the malted milk inside).
Present Day
In recent times, Hershey introduced and discontinued Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup-flavored Whoppers. The company has also focused on launching seasonal variants like Christmas-themed Sno-Balls and Easter Mini Robin Eggs. These holiday versions have boosted Hershey’s profits during the seasons they target.
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