Oreo
| Oreo Logo | |
| Company type | Brand |
|---|---|
| Industry | Food |
| Founded | 1912 |
| Headquarters | , |
| Parent | Nabisco |
Oreo is a trademark for a popular sandwich cookie currently manufactured by the Nabisco Division of Kraft Foods. The current design consists of a sweet, white filling commonly referred to as 'cream' or 'creme', sandwiched between two circular chocolate cookies.
Over 491 billion Oreo cookies have been sold since they were first introduced, making them the best selling cookie of the 20th century.[1] Its most recent packaging slogan is "Milk's Favorite Cookie", which is a slight change from "America's Favorite Cookie" (though some packages in the U.S. contain the original slogan).
History
The Oreo cookie was developed and produced by Nabisco, an American company, in February 1912 at its Chelsea factory in New York City (now Chelsea Market). It was created mainly to target the British market, whose biscuits were seen by Nabisco to be too 'ordinary'. [2] Originally, Oreo was mound-shaped and available in two flavors; lemon meringue and cream. In America, they were sold for 30 cents a pound in novel tin cans with glass tops, which allowed customers to see the cookies.
A newer design for the cookie was introduced in 1916, and as the cream filling was by far the more popular of the two available flavors, Nabisco discontinued production of the lemon meringue filling during the 1920s. The modern-day Oreo was developed in 1952 by William A Turnier, [2] to include the Nabisco logo.
There are many theories pointing to the origin of the name 'Oreo', including derivations from the French word 'Or', meaning gold (as early packaging was gold), or the Greek word 'Oros', meaning mountain or hill (as the original Oreo was mound shaped) or even the Greek word 'Oreos', meaning beautiful/nice. Other theories are that the 're' from cream was 'sandwiched' between the two Os from chocolate, or the word 'just seemed like a nice, melodic combination of sounds'.
Oreo is very similar to the Hydrox cookie manufactured by Sunshine, which was introduced in 1908, leading to speculation that Oreo obtained the idea from Sunshine. Having lost market share to Oreo for years, Hydrox cookies were withdrawn in 1999[3], but will be re-introduced by Kellogg's in August 2008 .
The product is distributed under the Kraft parent label and has no mention of the US sub-division Nabisco that is used in all countries where it is available for retail. Kraft is experimenting with the use of Nabisco products in the highly-developed UK snack market but if Oreo is a success, they may consider launching other products such as Chips Ahoy!.[citation needed]
Advertising campaign
Nabisco began a marketing program in 2008, advertising the use of Oreos in a game called DSRL, which stands for "Double Stuf Racing League." The DSRL was introduced one week prior to Super Bowl XLII. This "sport" had also been endorsed by football brothers Peyton Manning and Eli Manning.[4]
China
The Oreo is the biggest selling cookie in China, although its recipe uses a lower sugar content to suit local tastes.[5] Although sales improved, Kraft still felt the Oreo could do better.[5] After finding that wafers were a faster growing snack in China, Kraft redesigned them so that it looks nothing like the traditional Oreo cookie, but still tastes like one.[5]
UK
In May 2008, following stocking of Oreos in the supermarket chain Sainsbury's, Kraft decided to fully launch the Oreo across the UK, to the American recipe but repackaged in the more familiar British tube design, accompanied with a £4.5m television advertising campaign around the 'twist, lick, dunk' catchphrase.[6] Reception was initially sceptical, with noted British biscuit reviewer Stuart Payne of the Nice Cup of Tea and a Sit Down website mirroring general apprehension about the health effects and taste aspects of the high sugar content of Oreos, which would possibly not be to British tastes compared to the similar Custard cream. Comments also surrounded the dark color not relating to an expected taste of chocolate as with similar common British chocolate covered biscuit brands, the lack of crunchiness of the biscuit, and the practice of dunking in milk rather than tea also being outside of British cultural norms. Comparisons were drawn with the similarly less than successful launch of the Hershey bar in the UK. Kraft recently partnered with McDonald's to bring the Oreo McFlurry (Already on sale in many countries) to UK McDonald's locations.
Production
According to a statement from Kim McMiller, an Associate Director of Consumer Relations, a two-stage process is used to make Oreo cookies. The base cake dough is formed into the familiar round cookies by a rotary mold at the entrance of a 300-foot-long oven. Key ingredients include sugar (later replaced with high fructose corn syrup in the United States but not in other markets), Dutch cocoa, and pure chocolate liquor purchased from outside suppliers in addition to flour which is milled at Nabisco's flour mill.[citation needed] Much of current Oreo production is done at the Kraft/Nabisco factory in Richmond, Virginia. Oreos for the Asian market are manufactured in Indonesia.
Varieties
In addition to their traditional design of two chocolate wafers separated by a cream filling, Oreos have been produced in many different varieties since they were first introduced, and this list is only a guide to some of the more notable and recent types; not all are available in every country. Notable flavors in the US are: [7]
- Oreo WaferStix are long wafer sticks that have a creamy filling and are covered by chocolate.
- Golden Oreo have vanilla wafers and the traditional white cream filling.
- Golden Chocolate Creme Oreo are 'reverse' (inverse) Oreos in that they comprise vanilla wafers and a chocolate cream filling. Originally, the title was named Uh-Oh Oreo until 2007.
- Mini Oreo are bite-sized versions of ordinary Oreos.
- Double Stuf Oreo (introduced in 1975) have twice the normal amount of white cream filling.
- Big Stuf Oreo (introduced in 1985) were several times the size of a normal Oreo.[8][9] Sold individually, each Big Stuf contained 316 calories and 13 grams of fat.[10] They were discontinued in 1991.
- Double Delight Oreo (introduced in 1987) have chocolate cookies with two fillings, notably peanut butter 'n chocolate, mint 'n cream, and coffee 'n cream flavors. This is similar to Double Stuf.
- White Fudge Oreo and Milk Chocolate Oreo are covered in either a layer of white fudge or chocolate respectively.
- 100 Calorie Pack Oreo (Oreo Thinsations in Canada) are miniature, thin, hexagonal versions of Oreo that do not contain cream-filling and come individually-portioned into 100 calorie pouches.
- Triple Stuf Oreo (introduced in 2006) were limited to certain cities for a one month promotional trial before being permanently discontinued, they had three times the normal amount of white cream filling.[citation needed]
- Oreo Cakesters are 2 chocolate soft snack cakes with vanilla creme in the middle, which were introduced in 2007. These are also available with chocolate creme.
- Banana Split Oreo are a variety whose filling is a light yellow with a banana flavor.
- During springtime, around Halloween, and Christmas, special edition Double Stuf Oreos are produced with colored frosting depicting the current holiday (blue, orange, and red respectively).
- Oreo Handi-Snacks are plastic holders with rectangular Oreo cookies and a little box of icing.
Many of these varieties are combined, producing, for example, "Chocolate Fudge Mint Covered", "Double Stuf Chocolate Creme", and so forth.
Variations and adaptations
- Jell-O Oreo Pudding - Jell-O brand chocolate pudding at the bottom and on top, with vanilla in the middle.
- Jell-O Oreo Instant Pudding - also named cookies n' cream. The box contains instant vanilla pudding with real cookie pieces.
- An Oreo variety with lemon-flavored filling was available until the 1920s. Some generic brand cookies still have such varieties.
- There is a Post cereal called Oreo Os, with a little cream man wearing sunglasses on the box.
- In Italy, a similar cookie to Oreo called "Ringo" is manufactured by Pavesi, though recently Oreo became available as well, first in Blockbuster, then in supermarkets, and in 2008 the first Italian ad was launched.
- In Brazil, a very similar cookie to Oreo called "Negresco" is manufactured by Nestlé (picture, description).
- Oreo Ice Cream. This is licensed by Breyers, Good Humor, and Klondike in the US, and Nestlé in Canada. Flavors are:
- Oreo Ice Cream (Blended Oreo cookies in Vanilla Ice Cream)
- Oreo Ice Cream Sandwich (Extra Large Oreo wafers with the above mentioned ice cream in the middle)
- Oreo Ice Cream Bar (Chocolate Ice Cream bar with the above mentioned Ice Cream)
- Mint Oreo Ice Cream (Blended Oreo Cookies with Mint Ice Cream)
- Many notable fast-food restaurants serve Oreo flavored ice cream desserts and milkshakes
- Easy-Bake Oreo Mix - two easy-bake chocolate cakes with a marshmallow filling topped off with an Oreo cookie topping
- Oreo Cakesters- cream-filled chocolate cakes resembling Oreos
- Deep-Fried Oreo- Regular or Double Stuf Oreos, dipped in a batter, and deep fried for about 30 seconds. They are sometimes sold at carnivals and fairs.
- Oreo Pie Crust
- Oreo Madness at T.G.I. Fridays
- Oreo cereal is a Canadian delicacy where the cookies are crumbled into tiny pieces mixed with milk and served like a cereal.
- Organic Oreo (introduced in 2006) - plain Oreo cookies made with organic flour and organic sugar.
- Banana Split Oreo - introduced in Canada, an Oreo cookie with banana flavoring.[11]
- Strawberry Milkshake Oreo - introduced in Canada, and sold for a limited time in the United States, an Oreo cookie with strawberry flavoring.[12]
As an ingredient
The Oreo cookie is commonly used as an ingredient or adornment for other foods.[13] Oreo cookies are used in Domino Pizza's "Oreo Pizza". In addition, the development of premium ice creams has produced "cookies and cream" flavors, a vanilla ice cream with chunks of chocolate sandwich cookies included.[14] Cookies 'n' Cream may or may not contain actual Nabisco Oreo cookies. For example, Carvel uses hydrox cookies as a selling point since they have always been kosher.[15]
Style
Like many trademark holders, Nabisco often uses all uppercase (OREO) when mentioning the "OREO" mark in corporate and promotional literature.
Popular Culture
Oreos featured in the 1998 film Rounders starring Matt Damon, John Malkovich and Edward Norton in which Malkovich's character ate Oreos whenever he played poker and his signs of weakness was how he ate the oreos.
During the run of DC's Justice League International, it was shown that Martian Manhunter had a near addiction level obsession with Oreos, though he would later break the habit.
On Survivor: The Amazon to contestants got naked in order to receive Oreo cookies and peanut butter.
References
- ^ Toops, Diane: Top 10 power brands, Retrieved on June 07, 2007
- ^ a b Health food junkies beware: It's National Cookie Month!
- ^ Lukas, Paul. "Oreos to Hydrox: Resistance Is Futile." Business 2.0 March 1999. A reformulated version called Droxies was also later withdrawn.
- ^ The DSRL had 2 members joined (Peyton Manning and Eli Manning) "The Second Sport" http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=109&STORY=/www/story/01-14-2008/0004735850&EDATE=
- ^ a b c "Kraft Reformulates Oreo, Scores in China". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2008-05-06.
- ^ BBC News Magazine Can Oreo win over British biscuit lovers?, 2 May 2008
- ^ http://www.kraft.com/100/innovations/oreoprod.html
- ^ "Oreo Madness".
- ^ Friedman, Marty (November 1989). "Sizing up - and down - new product opportunities". Prepared Foods.
- ^ "Oreo Sandwiches Big Stuf".
- ^ New Products
- ^ New Products
- ^ "Sweet Ingredients: Oreo Products". Retrieved 2008-03-26.
- ^ "Calories in Baskin-Robbins - Oreo Cookies 'n Cream Ice Cream". Retrieved 2008-03-26.
- ^ Rhoads, Christopher. "The Hydrox Cookie Is Dead, and Fans Won't Get Over It." Wall Street Journal, January 19 2008. The original Oreo recipe used lard (pork fat).