Bill Rosenberg ran industrial catering trucks around Boston and noticed that workers mostly bought coffee and donuts, so in 1948 he opened Open Kettle in Quincy, Massachusetts, renaming it Dunkin’ Donuts in 1950. Its signature item was a donut with a handle baked in for dunking, and a mascot named Dunkie arrived in 1954. Franchising began in 1955, and some franchisees ran full diners with bacon and eggs. In 1963 Bill’s son Bob Rosenberg became CEO at 25, standardized the menu and moved stores toward self-service counters and paper cups. The hand-cut handle donut was discontinued in 2003 as too labor-intensive.
After buying Mister Donut and Dawn Donuts locations in the 1990s, the chain ran Hill Holliday’s Fritalian ads mocking coffeehouse jargon around 2006, dropped Donuts from its name in 2018 and 2019, and was bought by Inspire Brands for $11.3 billion in late 2020. Fred the Baker’s “Time to make the donuts” ran for 16 years, and Ben Affleck became the face of the brand in 2023, joined by Matt Damon and Tom Brady, with a 2026 Super Bowl parody of Good Will Hunting. Overseas results swung widely: Israel sold 3 million donuts in eight months after a 1996 Tel Aviv launch but closed by 2001, China had zero stores by 2025, and Canada is getting a second attempt.
- Michael Vale played Fred the Baker, who stumbled out before dawn in the 1980s ads.
- A 2013 ad by a franchisee in Thailand showing a woman in blackface for a charcoal donut drew international outrage.
- South Korea once made up nearly 40 percent of international sales and sold a donut shaped like a chicken leg.
- The Philippines opened its 900th store in June 2026.
- In May 2026 Inspire Brands signed with Montreal-based Foodtastic to return to Quebec and Ontario after leaving Canada in 2018.
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