Comebacks we'd like to see: #19 -- Screaming Yellow Zonkers
Filed under: Food
This post is part of our series ranking the top 25 bygone products and trends we'd like to see return.
Popcorn with yellow syrup
Popcorn with golden goo
Popcorn with golden crust
Popcorn with a golden glow
Popcorn with a golden glaze
Popped treats with a golden glaze
Golden glazed popcorn
Golden glazed maize
Honeycorn
Sugarlicious Popcorn
Fructastic Popalicious
Popcornarama
Screaming Yellow Zonkers!!
See? It's all in the marketing. Or was. The snack Screaming Yellow Zonkers was born in the 1960s with an irreverent name and kept that theme in some of the most imaginative packaging in snack food history. Zonkers boxes might have an explanation on the bottom on how to determine that this side was, in fact, the bottom. (Turn over: if Zonkers fall out, it is the bottom; if they fall up, it's the top.) Top-notch illustrators were also hired to keep the containers fresh and eye-catching.
Eventually, however, trendy becomes tired, and ConAgra retired the treat in 2007.
Oh- about the taste? Irrelevant.
What snack foods of the past would you like to see return?



Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-16-2008 @ 12:30PM
Sheuga said...
I agree with this one I Loved Zonkers, but you can still find it every now and then at a 7-11 or the .99 cents store. Fiddle Faddle does not even come close.
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5-16-2008 @ 12:46PM
Stefan Pociask said...
That's right! And who would buy something with as ridiculous a name as "Fiddle Faddle" anyways? Let's hear it for Screaming Yellow Zonkers!!
5-16-2008 @ 12:30PM
Sheuga said...
I have to agree with this one, I Love Zonkers but you can still find them now and then at a 7-11 or a .99 store. I refuse to eat fiddle faddle or craker jacks, if I want nuts in my popcorn i'll put them in my self.
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5-16-2008 @ 6:54PM
Josh Smith said...
These look good I better hit up the dollar store.
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5-17-2008 @ 9:31AM
John H. said...
I got my first taste of Screaming Yellow Zonkers in 1971 when I was six. Oh, how I loved them. There is nothing at all irrelevant about their taste. Those big, fluffy kernels of popped corn happily bathed in glorious yellow corn syrup. Wow! They even made kid favorite Cracker Jack seem not so special. My whole family fell in love with Screaming Yellow Zonkers.
Too our unhappy amazement, Zonkers soon went away. Since then, our hopes have been raised and dashed several times. Those heavenly Zonkers will reappear at some store. In our glee, we'll go through a sort of religious experience. We'll buy a box or two, go home, and eat till our hearts' content. But after a few weeks or months, our beloved snack will have disappeared again. A few years later, we'll find that Zonkers are back, often under the ownership of another food company. The cycle will repeat itself: celebration, indulgence, then the unhappy news that our Zonkers have been taken away again.
I believe the main problem with sales of Zonkers is that they haven't been advertised enough, especially on television. So I urge Con Agra, or whatever company now owns the rights to them, to time their next release with a big national TV campaign. Once the great masses go out and by our beloved Zonkers, they will keep coming back for more, and we will never again have to endure those agonizing five-year breaks in production. We will be able to feed our need for the greatest popcorn snack in history whenever we want.
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5-18-2008 @ 8:30AM
alkasmeltzer said...
It is, indeed, ConAgra that now owns the rights to Screaming Yellow Zonkers, having bought Lincoln Snacks Company from Ubiquity Foods, Inc on September 5, 2007.
ConAgra, however, is not the entity that nixed Zonkers. It had previously been nixed by the now defunct Ubiquity Foods, Inc in yet another one of their "brilliant" business decisions. There is, however, talk of re-introducing Zonkers as an 'effect' product at some point in the future.
An 'effect; product issomething similar to energy drinks. Anyone who has eaten Zonkersa will tell you that you do get a bit of an energy boost, albeit short lived.
Incidentally, Fiddle Faddle is made at the same location that Zonkers are/were made. Crunch & Munch was introduced as a competitor to Fiddle Faddle but has a much lower quality candy syrup. ConAgra now owns rights to both products and it is likely that Fiddle Faddle will also see the end of its days as well in the future. This is not an issue of quality or flavor, as stated before fiddle Faddle has a much higher quality candy syrup, but an issue of sales. ConAgra is a much larger corporation than Ubiquity Foods, Inc was, and therefore, controlled the snack aisle display. They effectively relegated Fiddle Faddle to the bottom shelf and killed the sales. In yet another 'brilliant" move by the marketing "brain trust" at Ubiquity, Fiddle Faddle became destined to appear at Walgreen's, Rite Aid, CVS, etc. as a $.99 value. It is still much better tasting than Crunch & Munch and will be until conAgra pulls the plug on it.
If you really enjoy a 'top shelf' adult indulgence popcorn snack, I urge all to try any one of the Poppycock branded products. Also a ConAgra product produced at the same plant as fiddle Faddle and Zonkers, just a higher level and quality product. It includes almonds & pecans, cashews only and in varieties with just the nuts inthe candy glaze. It is an incredible product.
I know all this as I work at the facility that makes all these products.
Write, email or phone conAgra. Screamin Yellow Zonkers are not dead yet. We can resurrect them!!!
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5-18-2008 @ 10:30AM
Dave emert said...
They were the greatest snack a stoner could get,Don't brush the zonkers or they might make you sick.........
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5-19-2008 @ 2:38PM
Lafecoker said...
I looked up Zonkers on Wikipedia and the guy who created and wrote the boxes, Allan Katz, went on to write and produce several huge TV series including M*A*S*H. It seems to me that he should be easy to find to see if he'd be interesting in resurrect the brand. After the first several boxes and commercials Katz did, others tried to take over and absolutely ruined it. While I enjoyed eating Zonkers, I loved the boxes even more. Did anybody see the Screaming Yellow Zonkers Circus poster? Wacky, amazing and inspired.
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6-08-2008 @ 12:19PM
zonked said...
I only tried it once when I was a kid and I spent the night running to the bathroom suffering from what I can only describe as THE Screaming Yellow Zonkers. Needless to say, I stayed far from them ever since.
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6-29-2008 @ 11:05AM
Joanie said...
I sure remember the Screaming Yellow Zonkers. It was the perfect snack food and product especially of the 70's! I have in my posession two Screaming Yellow Zonkers hats that I am going to list on ebay later today. The hats are black and have a yellow bird head on the front of the cap and a yellow tail on the back with Zonkers! written on the bill of the hat. There will be pics available. If anybody is interested in them, check us out on ebay. Just look for Screaming Yellow Zonkers hats in the search being sold by moonvalleyproducts. Thanks!
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