OREO Invites Cookie Fans to 'Trust the Twist'

OREO, the distinctive American black and white cookie brand, introduces its new European brand platform, 'Trust The Twist', with the aim of bringing playfulness into everyday habits and becoming part of people’s daily routine by leveraging the brand’s beloved ritual of twisting. 

This campaign has been inspired by a 2022 study conducted by MIT engineers, which followed in the footsteps of a 2016 study by Princeton University. The researchers were trying to understand why after twisting an OREO cookie, the crème always sticks to one side and almost never separates equally. Even after creating a special device called an  'OREOmeter', the researchers didn’t get a definitive answer. However, this research did lead LePub Amsterdam to create a European brand platform called 'Trust The Twist' making Oreo a new flip-a-coin joyful tool to help make decisions. 

As a matter of facts, today’s world requires us to make fast decisions, to make them often and to take them seriously. Or so we believe. Truth is, there might be another way of approaching everyday routine that could make our life more enjoyable and less conventional: introducing the Twist. 

When we try to twist an OREO, we’ll never know if the 'crème' - the sweet fondant filling of every OREO cookie - will end up on the right side, or on the left one. This random outcome candidates the Twist to be the perfect tool to which we can delegate all the small, repetitive, or serious decisions we face every day, like we would do with a coin flip. “Crème on the left or crème on the right?” becomes a much more playful take on the classic: “head or tail?” 

The 'Trust The Twist' platform takes on multiple challenges: to change consumers’ view and approach to something as established as their daily routine; and to do so by nudging the Twist into their daily life, bringing out spirit where you won’t think to find it.  

"We are excited to present the markets with our new brand platform, 'Trust The Twist', which resonates with playfulness, the credo that stands at the heart of the brand”, commented Perrine Pierrard-Willaey, Mondelez director, marketing Sweet Bakery Europe. “We believe that people would benefit from rediscovering a more light-hearted approach to their lives, especially nowadays. And we are delighted to inspire them to do so alongside our creative partners at LePub Amsterdam."  

The platform took inspiration from the brand’s purpose, heritage, and cheery personality to create a campaign that puts at its core multiple media. 

“When we sat down to shape Oreo’s new equity campaign, we knew we had a powerful tool we could tap into the ritual of the Twist. It already reclaimed its place into pop culture long ago, so we had no doubt it was the key to continue building on the brand’s heritage while letting Oreo’s intrinsic playfulness shine through. 'Trust The Twist' is a brave,  humorous statement by a brand that has always invited people to take life more light heartedly and will continue to do so” says Miloš Obradović, chief creative officer at LePub Amsterdam.

The campaign was launched in Spain, Portugal, Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, Bulgaria, Romania, EAM and Greece in 2023 and is now set to expand across Europe and Australia with a wider rollout. This will include TV films, digital and social media campaigns, as well as local activations throughout the EMEA and CEE.