Five Things About Little Debbie
and her 48-state sub-empire that sells about $1.6 billion worth of "snaks" each year
Pearl Mann, the artist who painted the first Little Debbie, the granddaughter of company founder O.D. McKee, who unveiled Debbie as his marketing image in 1960, made her living illustrating pin-up calendars.
2. Little Debbie’s Unicorn cakes, introduced in 2020, are “perfect for a unicorn-themed birthday party, a Saturday afternoon snack or popping in a lunchbox for a midday surprise.” (They are loaded, in my opinion, with a surprising amount of strawberry goodness.)
3. The huge oatmeal-cream pie in “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids” that kept the shrunken kids from starving was modelled on Little Debbie’s Oatmeal Creme Pie (a giant model of the Oatmeal Creme Pie was created for the “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: Movie Set Adventure” at Walt Disney World); the subliminal image in the movie was very subliminal.
5. The original name for the Little Debby Fig Bars introduced in 1986, 95 years after the introduction of the “Fig Newton” by the F. A. Kennedy Steam Bakery in 1891, was “Figaroos.”
6. The 1965 Little Debbie commercials starring Rich Little won an ADDY (American Advertising Awards
At the Blazers Cup festival in 2015, a two-day celebration of the best Hip Hop in Southern California, rapper Lil Debbie debuted her line of baked goods called "Cakes" and has not yet been sued by Little Debbie.