3145. Oreo Cookie

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Oreo is a trademark for a popular sandwich cookie 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. 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).

The Oreo cookie was developed and produced by Nabisco in 1912 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'. 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, 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 Having lost market share to Oreo for years, Hydrox cookies were withdrawn in 1999.
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.
Oreo comes from the Greek root for appetizing as in orexin or orexigenic (appetite stimulating) or anorexic (loss of appetite). 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. 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."