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 A candy bar with peanut butter crisp covered in chocolate. | |
| Product type | Crisped rice candy bar |
|---|---|
| Owner | The Hershey Company |
| Produced by | The Hershey Company |
| Country | U.S. |
| Introduced | 1978 |
| Related brands | WHOZEEWHATZIT |
| Markets | U.S. |
| Tagline | You Can Ask For it By Name |
| Website | hersheyland.com/whatchamacallit |
Whatchamacallit is a chocolate candy bar marketed in the United States by The Hershey Company.
Whatchamacallit bars were first introduced in 1978. The name was devised by Patricia Volk, the writer of STUFFED: Adventures of a Restaurant Family, when she was the associate creative director at Doyle Dane & Bernbach, and was in charge of new brands on the Hershey account. [1] From 1978 to 1987, Whatchamacallit consisted of a bar of peanut-flavored crisp that utilized peanut butter as the flavoring agent, coated in a thin layer of chocolate. From 1987 to 2008, Whatchamacallit has included peanut-flavored crisp that utilizes peanut butter as the flavoring agent, with a layer of caramel and a layer of chocolate coating. Hershey's Whatchamacallit is found in recipes for various food items, including pies, cookies, cheesecakes, and cupcakes.[ citation needed ]
The advertising for the Whatchamacallit peaked in the 1980s; after this period Hershey Company ran noticeably fewer advertisements for this product. However, despite the lack of attention the company gives it compared to its other products, the Whatchamacallit is still in production as of 2024.[ citation needed ]
In Canada, an identical candy bar[ citation needed ] is marketed by Hershey's as Special Crisp, but does not have the wide distribution in Canada that the Whatchamacallit has in the United States.[ citation needed ]
In 2008 the Hershey Company began to change the ingredients for some of its products, replacing the relatively expensive cocoa butter with cheaper oil substitutes. Such cost-cutting was done to reduce production costs and avoid price increases for its products. [2]
Hershey's changed the description of the product and altered the packaging slightly along with the ingredients. Though the new formula still contains chocolate, according to United States Food and Drug Administration food labeling laws, products that do not contain cocoa butter cannot legally be described as milk chocolate ; instead, such products are often referred to as chocolate candy. [3]
In 2009 Hershey's introduced Thingamajig, featuring chocolate, cocoa crisps, and peanut butter inside. [4] It was reintroduced in late 2011 on a supposedly permanent basis. However, as of 2012, according to Hershey's Chocolate World in Pennsylvania, the Thingamajig candy bar is no longer being produced.[ citation needed ]
In 2021 Hershey's unveiled the Whozeewhatzit bar [5] featuring the chocolate, cocoa crisps, crisped rice, and peanut butter ingredients of the Thingamajig bar from 2009. Hershey's held a naming contest for the new bar, with a $5,000 prize for the most creative name, along with a year's supply of the confection. After more than 43,000 entries the Whatchamacallit brand declared the name Whozeewhatzit the winning entry. The Whozeewhatzit wrapper identifies the contest winner: Lisa M. from Framingham, Massachusetts with inspiration from Michael Scott The Office. [6]
The Hershey Company, often called just Hershey or Hershey's, is an American multinational confectionery company headquartered in Hershey, Pennsylvania, which is also home to Hersheypark and Hershey's Chocolate World. The Hershey Company is one of the largest chocolate manufacturers in the world; it also manufactures baked products, such as cookies and cakes, and sells beverages like milkshakes, as well as other products. The Hershey Company was founded by Milton S. Hershey in 1894 as the Hershey Chocolate Company, originally established as a subsidiary of his Lancaster Caramel Company. The Hershey Trust Company owns a minority stake but retains a majority of the voting power within the company.
Planters Nut & Chocolate Company is an American snack food company now owned by Hormel Foods. Planters is best known for its processed nuts and for the Mr. Peanut icon that symbolizes them. Mr. Peanut was created by grade schooler Antonio Gentile for a 1916 contest to design the company's brand icon. The design was modified by a commercial artist and has continued to change over the years.
Kit Kat is a chocolate-covered wafer bar confection created by Rowntree's of York, England. It is produced globally by Nestlé, except in the United States, where it is made under licence by the H. B. Reese Candy Company, a division of the Hershey Company.
Reese's Pieces are a peanut butter candy manufactured by The Hershey Company; they are oblate spheroid in shape and covered in candy shells that are colored yellow, orange, or brown. They can be purchased in plastic packets, cardboard boxes, or cup-shaped travel containers. The Reese company was founded by H.B. Reese. The H.B. Reese Candy Company was merged with The Hershey Company in 1963.
Butterfinger is a candy bar manufactured by the Ferrara Candy Company, a subsidiary of Ferrero. It consists of a layered crisp peanut butter core covered in a "chocolatey" coating. It was invented by Otto Schnering of the Curtiss Candy Company in 1923. A popularity contest chose the name.
Hershey's Kisses are chocolates first produced by the Hershey Company in 1907. The bite-sized pieces of chocolate have a distinctive conical shape, sometimes described as flat-bottomed teardrops. Hershey's Kisses chocolates are wrapped in squares of lightweight aluminum foil. A narrow strip of paper, called a plume, protrudes from the top of each Hershey's Kiss wrapper. Originally designed as a flag for the "Hershey's" brand, the printed paper plumes were added to the Kisses product wrapper in 1921 to distinguish the Hershey's Kiss from its competitors who were offering similar products.
Reese's Peanut Butter Cups are an American candy by the Hershey Company consisting of a peanut butter filling encased in chocolate. They were created on November 15, 1928, by H. B. Reese, a former dairy farmer and shipping foreman for Milton S. Hershey. Reese was let go from his job with Hershey when the Round Barn which he managed was shut down for cost-saving measures. He subsequently decided to start his own candy business. Reese's are a top-selling candy brand worldwide, with $3.1 billion in annual sales.
Reese's Take 5 is a candy bar that was released by The Hershey Company in December 2004. The original name of the candy bar was TAKE5 but common usage among consumers added a space. In June 2019, when the candy bar became part of the Reese's family, the name was officially changed to Reese's Take 5.
Mr. Goodbar is a candy bar containing peanuts and chocolate, whose packaging is identifiable by its yellow background and red text. It is manufactured by The Hershey Company and was introduced in 1925.
Hershey's Special Dark is a chocolate bar manufactured by The Hershey Company.
Milk Duds are a brand of candies made with chocolate, created in 1928 by Hoffman and Company of Chicago and now produced and marketed by The Hershey Company, under license from owners of the brand, Highlander Partners, a Dallas-based global private equity firm.
Harry Burnett Reese was an American inventor and businessman known for creating Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, and founding the H. B. Reese Candy Company. In 2009, he was posthumously inducted into the Candy Hall of Fame.
Hershey's Snack Barz is a brand of candy bar produced, marketed, and sold by The Hershey Company.
Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cocoa beans mixed with fat and powdered sugar to produce a solid confectionery. There are several types of chocolate, classified primarily according to the proportion of cocoa and fat content used in a particular formulation.
Hershey Kissables were a chocolate candy sold by The Hershey Company from 2005 to 2009. Comparable to M&M's, Hershey Kissables were shaped like miniature Hershey's Kisses and were coated in a thick sugar shell.
Hershey's Cookies 'n' Creme is a candy bar manufactured by The Hershey Company and first introduced in 1994.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to chocolate:
A candy bar is a type of portable candy that is in the shape of a bar. The most common type of candy bar is the chocolate bar, including both bars made of solid chocolate and combination candy bars, which are candy bars that combine chocolate with other ingredients, such as nuts, caramel, nougat, or wafers.
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