Yoo-hoo was created in Garfield, New Jersey, in 1928 by Natale Olivieri, who had been bottling carbonated fruit drinks.[1]
In the 1940s, Thomas Giresi opened a bottling plant in Batesburg, South Carolina, for distribution of Yoo-hoo. In the 1960s, an advertising campaign tried to appeal to an older public for the drink, and featured Yogi Berra and his New York Yankees teammates. Berra, in a pin-striped business suit, drinks a bottle of Yoo-hoo, lifts it next to his cheek, and says with a smile, "It's Me-He for Yoo-Hoo!"[citation needed]
Later, Yoo-hoo advertised as : Yoo-hoo, the chocolate action drink.[2]
BBC Industries purchased the rights to Yoo-hoo sometime in the 1950s and retained ownership until 1976, when it sold the brand to Iroquois Brands. Yoo-hoo was sold again in 1981 to a group of private investors, which owned the brand until 1989, when it was sold to the French conglomerate Pernod Ricard.
In 2001, Pernod Ricard sold Yoo-hoo to Cadbury Schweppes, with production responsibilities falling to CS's Mott's group and marketing and advertising responsibilities under Snapple. They heightened awareness of the once-popular beverage.
In May 2008, Cadbury-Schweppes split into the Cadbury candy business and the Dr Pepper Snapple Group soft drink firm, with the latter taking over Yoo-hoo.
Alleged misleading advertising
In 2010, a legal suit was brought against the Dr Pepper Snapple Group in New York state by Timothy Dahl. The suit alleged that the Dr Pepper Snapple Group engaged in misleading advertising as to nutritional makeup of Yoo-hoo.[3][needs update] Papers filed by Dahl claimed that the drink "contains dangerous, unhealthy, non-nutritious partially hydrogenated oil". Further, he stated that the drink "contains virtually no milk and instead is mostly water, sugars, milk by-products and chemicals." However, Motts LLP, which made the drink during this time said the drink contains "seven vitamins and minerals and no preservatives" and they stood by their product.[4]
Flavors
Regular Yoo-hoo
Yoo-hoo "Double Fudge"
Yoo-hoo "Drink boxes"
Yoo-hoo began introducing new flavors to its lineup in 1995, including chocolate-coconut, chocolate-mint, chocolate-banana, and chocolate-strawberry.[5] Yoo-hoo's other flavors[6] have included vanilla, strawberry, cookies & cream, chocolate peanut butter, and chocolate caramel. The Double Fudge, banana, and Island Coconut flavors were discontinued.
^Murphy, Ian P. (February 3, 1997). "Yoo-hoo adds flavors to its marketing mix". Marketing News. 31 (3): 2.
^Plano, Attn: Dr Pepper Snapple Group Consumer Relations P. O. Box 869077; Tx 75086-9077. "Yoo-hoo". Yoo-hoo. Retrieved November 28, 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)