Ring Ding / Ding Dong Conflict
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 of Drake's with Hostess' parent company (then Continental Baking Company) 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, which had recently merged with 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.
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Famous quotes containing the words ring, dong and/or conflict:
“It is engend’red in the eyes,
With gazing fed; and fancy dies
In the cradle where it lies.
Let us all ring fancy’s knell.
I’ll begin it—Ding, dong, bell.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“With hym ther was a plowman, was his brother,
That hadde ylad of dong ful many a fother.”
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?–1400)
“Journey to Gethsemane, go and feel the tempter’s power;
Your Redeemer’s conflict see, watch the anguish of this hour;
Do not hide or turn away: learn from Jesus how to pray.”
—James Montgomery (1771–1854)