From "follower" to cookie king: Oreo's sweet battle

(Dan Tri) - The competition between Oreo and Hydrox is likened to the war between Coca-Cola and Pepsi in the biscuit industry.

If you’ve ever spun, licked, or dipped an Oreo cookie in milk before eating it, you’ve probably unwittingly recreated the world’s most famous cookie brand’s marketing campaign. But few people know that the iconic chocolate chip cookie with vanilla cream filling was actually… a copycat.

The Forgotten Original

In 1898, Nabisco Corporation was formed through the merger of three major American biscuit companies: American Biscuit & Manufacturing Company, New York Biscuit Company and United States Baking Company. This combination created a corporation that owned 114 factories and more than 400 ovens, accounting for more than half of the American biscuit market at that time.

In 1902, brothers Jacob and Joseph Loose left the giant biscuit corporation Nabisco to form their own company, the Loose-Wiles Biscuit Company. As traditional butter biscuits were starting to become boring, they created a new kind of biscuit.

The cookies mimicked a sandwich, with two layers of cocoa cake sandwiched between a smooth vanilla cream filling. The Loose brothers named the cookies Hydrox. The name was very scientific , implying the purity and cleanliness of water - something the American food industry desperately needed to regain consumer trust.

Hydrox quickly became an explosive phenomenon because of its delicious taste, completely different from other cookies at that time. Less than a decade later, the name Hydrox was the "king" of the American cookie world, making even the Nabisco empire wary.

Hydrox Cookies (Photo: Mashed).

The "copycat" scene does not need to be hidden

Rather than invent a new product to compete, Nabisco took the quickest route and copied Hydrox’s recipe. In 1912, Nabisco introduced the Oreo, a nearly identical cookie made of two cocoa shells sandwiching a vanilla cream filling at its New York factory.

Oreo was born in a weak position as a latecomer, with nothing outstanding compared to the original, and was even considered a "copycat". But Nabisco possessed something Hydrox did not have: the art of marketing.

Oreo began its Hydrox takeover by redefining the cookie-eating experience. In 1923, Nabisco launched a massive advertising campaign with a catchy slogan and image: spin the cookie - lick the cream - dip it in milk. A simple action but creating a connection, making customers feel that eating Oreo was a unique experience, unlike any other cookie.

Meanwhile, Hydrox took a rather negative approach to competition. They constantly emphasized that they were the original, criticizing Oreo as a copycat. However, this strategy did not work. Consumers began to make the opposite mistake when they saw that Oreo was more famous and expensive, and believed that Hydrox was the copycat.

There was even a time when Oreo raised its prices, instead of being turned away, this brand became more trusted. The high price made customers implicitly understand that this was the real cookie, while Hydrox looked cheap and like a copy.

The Death of Hydrox and the Rise of the Oreo Empire

In 1922, Joseph Loose, co-founder of Hydrox, died suddenly of heart disease. A year later, his brother Jacob also died suddenly. Without a leader, the Loose-Wiles biscuit company fell into crisis.

At this point, the name Hydrox began to backfire, as it was associated with cleaning chemicals instead of its original purity. Consumers became wary and turned away from the brand.

Oreo and Hydrox on supermarket shelves (Photo: Mashed).

Nabisco immediately seized the opportunity and accelerated Oreo promotion. They did not mention Hydrox, did not criticize the competition, simply focused on the fun, delicious feeling that Oreo brought. Gradually, Hydrox gradually withdrew from the market. In 2003, the brand officially disappeared.

While Hydrox quietly faded away, Oreo kept reinventing itself. In 1975, Oreo launched the "Double Stuf" version with double the cream filling. In 1987, Oreo launched the chocolate-covered cookie for sweet lovers called "Cakesters". This brand created a rich range of products from mini Oreos to Oreos with strawberry, banana, popcorn, milk tea, etc.

In 1985, Oreo set a Guinness World Record with more than 6 billion cookies sold per year, officially becoming the world's best-selling cookie.

In 2000, Nabisco was acquired by food conglomerate Philip Morris (owner of Kraft Foods). Oreo was then taken over by Mondelez International and continued to grow, with sales of over $3.1 billion in 2019 alone.

The late revival of Hydrox

It was thought to have been completely forgotten, but in 2015, an American food company called Leaf Brands unexpectedly revived Hydrox and claimed that this was the "stolen original". They accused Oreo of not only copying the formula, but also using poor quality ingredients (corn syrup instead of real cane sugar like Hydrox).

However, the market reaction was clear when no one cared. Oreo had become an icon of childhood and pop culture. Whether Hydrox was truly the original or not, consumers still chose the brand that was already so familiar.

In 2016, Leaf Brands even issued a statement asserting that Hydrox was still retaining jobs in the US through its manufacturing operations, while Mondelez International laid off workers to move some production to a plant in Mexico.

President Trump previously criticized the Oreo maker for moving production out of the country. Hydrox was quick to slap a “Proudly Made in the USA” sticker on its packaging next to the American flag.

The relaunch appears to have paid off, with Hydrox sales reportedly increasing more than 20-fold from 2016 to 2017, reaching over $492,000. Still, that’s a far cry from Oreo’s overwhelming dominance of the market.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/kinh-doanh/tu-vi-the-an-theo-den-ong-vua-banh-quy-cuoc-chien-ngot-ngao-cua-oreo-20250527144320666.htm