Can white bread be healthy? Hostess rises to meet the challenge with Wonder Smartwhite introduction.

With Americans as food conscious as ever, food manufacturers are struggling to make iconic brands (that are now deemed unhealthy) into relevant new products for today’s consumers. Hostess is one of the companies leading a Quixotic charge with their recent launch of Wonder Smartwhite bread on March 29, 2010.

Customers who try the bread will be wondering what has changed, given the fact that Smartwhite has the taste and soft texture of the traditional offering. But when they scan the nutrition label, they’ll see that each 50-calorie slice provides five grams of fiber per serving, each two slices have the calcium equivalent of an eight-ounce glass of milk, and the new bread features nine vitamins and minerals, with 33 percent less sodium than regular white bread.

The Wonder Smartwhite campaign found inspiration in the early Wonder bread supermarket displays from the 1950s, which featured ballplayers Mickey Mantle and Stan Musial telling moms that “good ball players need” Wonder bread enriched with vitamins and minerals to “build strong bodies.” Moving to today, Wonder implemented a new TV and print campaign reminding moms, once again, that Wonder is enriched with the vitamins and minerals their kids need to grow. “This campaign is consistent with our heritage messaging,” said Stephany Verstraete, vp of bread marketing at Hostess Brands. “What’s fresh is the emotional connection.”

To modernize the campaign, Wonder created the Sandwich Wonder-izer app for the iPhone and iTouch. The app lets users create billions of different sandwiches and shows them how close they come to fulfilling the daily recommended amounts of key vitamins and minerals. The app features all varieties of Wonder bread, including the new Smartwhite and another recent launch: Wonder made with whole grain.

As more Americans focus on nutrition, and parents become ever more stringent about what they will feed their children, Wonder faces a difficult challenge in changing the stereotype of “unhealthy white bread.” Some bloggers have already decried the offering as unnatural and additive-laden. But if you’re a mom with the classic P-B-J on white bread as the order of the day, what will you choose?

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