Wonder Bread
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Wonder Bread is a brand of extremely soft white bread.
It was originally produced by Taggart Baking Company of Indianapolis and debuted on May 21, 1921 after "blind" promotion with ads that only stated a "Wonder" was coming on May 21, 1921. It was named by Taggart Vice President Elmer Cline who was inspired by the International Balloon Race at the Indianapolis Speedway resulting in the red, yellow and blue logo.
Tagart was purchased by Continental Baking in 1925 which made Wonder Bread a national brand and added "It's Slo Baked" to the logo.
In the 1930s Continental Baking began shipping Wonder Bread in pre-sliced form, one of the first companies to do so. Unsliced bread returned for a while during World War II due to metal shortages in the production process.
During the 1940s Continental Baking began adding vitamins and minerals to Wonder Bread, as part of a government-sponsored program of enriching white bread. This development is credited with greatly reducing the incidence of the diseases beriberi and pellagra. By the 1960s Wonder Bread was advertised with the slogan "Helps build strong bodies in 12 ways," referring to the number of enrichments.
Wonder Bread is known to several generations of youngsters as being almost infinitely compressible.
In 1986, the lower-calorie Wonder Light bread was introduced.
In 1995, Continental Baking was bought by Interstate Bakeries Corporation. In 2004, Interstate Bakeries declared bankruptcy, putting the future of Wonder Bread in some doubt.
External links
- Official website (http://www.wonderbread.com/)