Peeps candy still popular 60 years after hatching

Brand to roll out first ad campaign in decade

Gail Counterman adjusts a Peeps box as it move through the manufacturing process at the Just Born factory in Bethlehem, Pa.

AP

Peeps move through the manufacturing process, at the Just Born factory in Bethlehem, Pa. With the storied candy brand celebrating its 60th anniversary this year, a quirky new TV ad campaign talks about all the things people do with their Peeps.

BETHLEHEM — It’s Easter morning. A boy rouses his younger brother, and they run to the living room to find their baskets filled with — what else? — Peeps.

“Peeps are the candy of Easter,” the boy tells his sibling, who pops a yellow marshmallow chick in his mouth.

“You can eat ’em, smash ’em, microwave ’em, deep fry ’em, roast ’em on a stick,” the boy explains. That’s not all. You can make “historically accurate Peeps dioramas ... Peeps pop art ... You can make a Peeps topiary.” On he goes, all day and night. “Peeps jousting ... hide-and-go Peeps ... Peepshi [that's sushi made out of Peeps].”

As the storied candy brand celebrates its 60th anniversary this year, Peeps’ first TV ad in a decade captures an essential truth about the spongy confection made of sugar, corn syrup, and gelatin: People do all sorts of things with Peeps, only some of which involve giving them to kids at Easter or eating them straight from the box.

And they’re not shy about sharing.

“Everyone seems to have a Peeps story,” said Ross Born, third-generation operator of Just Born Inc., which hatches 5 million Peeps a day at its plant 60 miles north of Philadelphia. “And they are free and willing to talk about how they eat their Peeps, how they cure them, how they store them, how they decorate with them. And these are adults.”

Just Born calls it the “Peepsonality” of consumers who buy Peeps not only to eat, but also to play around with.

“If you had asked me about this 25 years ago, I would’ve been rather bewildered about the whole thing,” Mr. Born confesses. “We were candy makers.”

Gail Counterman adjusts a Peeps box as it move through the manufacturing process at the Just Born factory in Bethlehem, Pa.

Not that he’s complaining. Just Born had its best year financially in 2012. And the company will churn out more than 1 billion Peeps this Easter season.

Mr. Born’s grandfather, Russian immigrant Sam Born, started the company out of a Brooklyn storefront 90 years ago. He advertised the freshness of his product with a sign that said “Just Born.” The name stuck.

The business moved to Bethlehem and acquired the Peeps brand with its 1953 purchase of Rodda Candy Co. of Lancaster. Best known for its jelly beans, Rodda employed dozens of women who hand-squeezed marshmallow chicks and bunnies from pastry bags. “It was really very difficult,” David Shaffer, Sam Born’s nephew and co-CEO along with Ross Born, said.

Ross’s father, Bob Born — a physicist and engineer by training — automated the process in the mid-1950s, and a version of the machine he invented still extrudes millions of those familiar shapes on peak-Peep production days.

The firm, whose other brands are Hot Tamales, Mike and Ike, and Goldenberg’s Peanut Chews, has never suffered an unprofitable year.

But its growth has been slow, steady, and controlled. A few years ago, Mr. Born and Mr. Shaffer decided to accelerate it.

The partners brought in a new management team, spent heavily on marketing, and broke back into the chocolate business, introducing chocolate-dipped Peeps as well as Peepsters, small chocolate candies filled with marshmallow-flavored cream.

They also focused on holiday seasons other than Easter, particularly Christmas.

The result: Mr. Shaffer said last year was “off the charts.”

Just Born is privately held and does not disclose revenue, but he said it posted double-digit growth across all brands.

And he sees more growth potential as the confectioner works to position its products in warehouse clubs and convenience stores.