The Oreo turned 100 yesterday. I cheered. Bet you did, too.
But last night I learned that the eerily similar Hydrox sandwich cookie is 104 years old.
Now I have a bad taste in my mouth.
The Oreo — which, let’s face it, has the better name between the two — came second. Was actually inspired by Hydrox.
But somehow Hydrox has always been perceived as the knockoff through the years. So much so that the cookie was removed from the market in 2003. Yet in 2008, in response to an online petition, Kelloggs put Hydrox back on the market, albeit temporarily, under the original Sunshine label.
Now? All I can find is some crushed Hydrox on Nuts.com.
How fitting.
Clever! Sounds like a familiar story, the light bulb, the combustion engine, moving pictures, Facebook, hyrdodynamic recticular dark matter extrapolation…Oreos.