| Type | New vanilla flavour foundation = New York City (2000) |
|---|---|
| Industry | Food |
| Headquarters | East Hanover, New Jersey, United States |
| Parent | Nabisco (Kraft Foods) |
| Website | Oreo.com |
| References: new vanilla flavour | |
Oreo is a trademark for a popular cookie sandwich 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 or golden cookie pieces.
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 the original, "America's Favorite Cookie" (though some packages in the U.S. still use the original slogan).
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The Oreo cookie was developed and produced by Nabisco in 1912[2][3] at its Chelsea factory in New York City. It was commercialized in order to target the British market, whose biscuits were seen by Nabisco to be too 'ordinary'.[4] Originally, Oreos were mound-shaped and available in two flavors; lemon meringue and cream. In the United States, they were sold for 25 cents a pound in novelty cans with clear glass tops. 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 design was developed in 1952, perhaps by William A. Turnier,[4][5] to include the Nabisco logo.
Oreo is very similar to the Hydrox cookie manufactured by Sunshine, which was introduced in 1908, leading to speculation that Nabisco obtained the idea from Sunshine. Having lost market share to Oreo for years, Hydrox cookies were withdrawn in 1999.[6]
The product is distributed in the US under the Nabisco brand name. In Canada, it is marketed under the Christie brand name.
The Oreo was originally called the Oreo Biscuit. The name was later changed to the Oreo Sandwich in 1921. In 1948, the name was changed again to the Oreo Creme Sandwich. It was then changed to the Oreo Chocolate Sandwich Cookie in 1974.[7]
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 'Oreo', meaning beautiful or nice.[7] Other theories are that the 're' from cream was 'sandwiched' between the two Os from cookie, or the word 'just seemed like a nice, melodic combination of sounds'. A TV spot for the Got Milk? campaign showed a false etymology where, when at a board meeting to decide the name of the cookie, one of the members is asked for his opinion; the member, who just ate a cookie and does not have any milk to wash it down responds "I don't know," which is heard by the board member as "Oreo." "Oreo" is also similar to the Greek root for appetizing as in orexin or orexigenic (appetite stimulating) or anorexic (loss of appetite).
In 1990, singer/songwriter/parodist "Weird Al" Yankovic wrote a tribute to the Oreo, titled "The White Stuff", a parody of the New Kids on the Block single "You Got It (The Right Stuff)". The song focuses on the virtues of the creme inside an Oreo. In 1985, songwriter and blues musician Lonnie Mack wrote a song titled "Oreo Cookie Blues" for his album Strike Like Lightning. The song is focused on how much the narrator of the song loves the Oreo cookie.
In 2010, the country singer Abi Lester recorded a song on her She Dreams album written by Bob Carlisle called "Flaming Red" in which the line "I'd take a long bath, turn the radio on, and sing really, really loud to all my favorite songs, eat a whole box of Oreos in my bed" appears.
Oreo cookies were introduced to Chinese consumers in 1996 and sales gradually grew in the fast-growing Chinese biscuit market. In 2006, Oreo became the best-selling cookie in the People's Republic of China, after altering its recipe to have a lower sugar content to suit local tastes.[8] Kraft Foods also introduced smaller size packages of Oreo cookies that became more affordable to the majority of Chinese consumers. Kraft began a grassroots marketing campaign in China to "educate" Chinese consumers about the American tradition of pairing milk with cookies. The company created an Oreo apprentice program at 30 Chinese universities that drew 6,000 student applications. Three hundred of the applicants were trained to become Oreo brand ambassadors, and some students rode around Beijing on bicycles with wheel covers resembling Oreo cookies and handed out cookies to more than 300,000 consumers. Others organized Oreo-themed basketball games to reinforce the idea of dunking cookies in milk. Television commercials depicted children twisting apart Oreo cookies, licking the cream center and dipping the chocolate cookie halves into glasses of milk.[9]
Although sales improved, Kraft still felt the Oreo could do better and decided to reinvent the traditional, round biscuit to a wafer. The new offering was called Oreo Wafer Sticks and consists of four layers of crispy wafer filled with vanilla and chocolate cream, and on the exterior is coated with chocolate. The wafer was also formulated to ensure that the chocolate coating was not too sweet for Chinese consumers and product could be shipped across the country---withstanding the cold climate in the north and the hot, humid weather in the south.[9] The new Oreo was outselling traditional round Oreo cookies in China in 2006, and Kraft has begun selling the wafers elsewhere in Asia, as well as in Australia and Canada. Kraft has also introduced Oreo Wafer Rolls, a tube-shaped wafer lined with cream, in China. The hollow cookie can be used as a straw through which to drink milk.
Over the period of 2006–2007, Kraft doubled its Oreo sales in China, making China the second-largest Oreo market globally behind the United States. With the help of those sales, Oreo revenue topped $1 billion world-wide for the first time in 2007.[9]
Oreo continued to grow strongly and become a favorite snack among Chinese consumers with new flavor varieties being introduced over 2008–2010. Oreo with strawberry creme filling was successfully introduced in 2009 and Oreo Ice Cream flavors were introduced in 2010. Oreo Ice Cream flavors included Vanilla and Green Tea ice cream flavors, with the creme giving a fun cooling sensation in the mouth like the taste of ice cream. Mini Oreo, a smaller version of the original cookie, were introduced to China late in 2010.
Oreo also partnered with Shanghai-born basketball superstar Yao Ming, the tallest player in the National Basketball Association, to act as its Oreo brand ambassador and featured Yao Ming 'dunking' Oreo cookies like a basketball in its 2010 Oreo advertising campaign.
In 2004, the convenience store chain Deli de Luca started selling Oreo in all of their stores. It was welcomed by consumers, and is the top-selling cookie to young people. Other larger chains in Norway (Ica, Rema 1000, Meny and Ultra) began selling Oreo cookies as well and they can now be found in almost every convenience store in urban/suburban Norway. In 2005, the stores stopped the importation to Norway because Kraft Foods took over.
In May 2008, following stocking of Oreo (called Oreo biscuits in UK[10]) in the supermarket chain Sainsbury's, Kraft decided to fully launch the Oreo across the UK, repackaged in the more familiar British tube design, accompanied with a £4.5M television advertising campaign around the 'twist, lick, dunk' catchphrase.[11] Kraft recently partnered with McDonald's to bring the Oreo McFlurry (already on sale in many countries) to a few McDonald's locations during its yearly Great Tastes of America promotions. The UK Oreo website gives a slightly different ingredients list to that of the US product. Unlike the US version, UK oreos contain whey powder and so are not suitable for people who avoid milk products.[12][13] On 06 December 2011, Kraft announced that Oreos would start to be produced in the UK. Their Cadbury factory at Sheffield in South Yorkshire has been selected to manufacture Oreos in the UK for the first time. Construction of the Oreo plant in Sheffield is due to start in March 2012.
In Canada, Oreo products are manufactured and sold under the Christies brand. However, the Canadian version contains coconut oil, giving it a different taste from its American counterpart.
In February 2011, Oreo hit Polish supermarkets and shops. It features a huge ad campaign. After becoming a success, Kraft Foods Polska decided to introduce new flavors by the end of 2011. It is also available in local McDonald's restaurants as an addition to McFlurry ice cream.
In February 2011, Oreo initiated a large advertising campaign, and the product is now available in supermarkets and shops. It is also availible in local McDonald's restaurants as an addition to McFlurry ice cream.
It was first introduced in India in March 2011 under Cadbury, a major chocolate brand recently acquired by Kraft, with the tag line, it is the world's No. 1 biscuit.[14][15] It is also available in local McDonald's restaurants as an addition to McFlurry ice cream. Before the launch of the brand in India, Britannia Industries launched a similar brand named Treat-o.[16]
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. Much of current Oreo production is done at the Kraft/Nabisco factory in Richmond, Virginia. Oreo cookies for the Asian markets are manufactured in Indonesia, India and China. European Oreo cookies are made in Spain.
In addition to their traditional design of two chocolate wafers separated by a cream filling, Oreo cookies 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:[17]
On May 13, 2003, attorney Stephen Joseph filed a lawsuit charging Nabisco with using hydrogenated (or partially hydrogenated) oils (trans fats) to make the cookies. The suit was dropped as Nabisco considered replacing the hydrogenated oils with alternative oils. Joseph admitted he filed the lawsuit to call attention to the matter, and he considered his motion successful. As of January 2006, classic Oreo cookies are no longer manufactured with hydrogenated oils, and instead use non-hydrogenated vegetable oil.[27] Other varieties may not have eliminated hydrogenated oils completely.
The trans fats had been added to the Oreo recipe to replace its original fat, lard.[28] Earlier outcry regarding these types of saturated fats is what prompted the change to use more unsaturated fats in the first place.[29][30]
In April 2011, Oreo announced its special edition Oreo cookies with blue cream in promotion of the 2011 3D computer animated film Rio. The promotion included stickers inside each package of cookies. Two types of contests were also announced: first, by completing an album of stickers, consumers could win three movie passes and medium snack bar combos; second, by finding winning stickers in packages with prizes, including a trip to Rio de Janeiro, backpacks, cinema passes for a year, and 3D glasses. The promotion ended May 30, 2011,[31] and was available in Ecuador, Peru, and Colombia.[32]