3. Hydrox Cookies
Here lies one of the great injustices in snack food history. If you believe Oreo is the original chocolate sandwich cookie, you’ve been living a lie. Hydrox, the slightly less sweet, crunchier cousin, was introduced by Sunshine Biscuits in 1908, a full four years before Nabisco launched the Oreo in 1912. For decades, Hydrox held its own, a beloved cookie with a devoted following.
The name, however, may have been its Achilles’ heel. “Hydrox” was created from the names of the elements hydrogen and oxygen, meant to evoke purity and crispness. To many consumers, it sounded more like a chemical cleaning agent than a delicious treat. Oreo, a name with no specific meaning but a pleasant, memorable sound, was a branding masterpiece. Throughout the 20th century, Nabisco’s marketing muscle and distribution network steadily eroded Hydrox’s market share.
Sunshine Biscuits was eventually acquired by Keebler, which was later bought by Kellogg’s. Hydrox was officially discontinued in 2003, much to the dismay of its loyalists. The outcry was so significant that Kellogg’s brought it back for a limited run in 2008 to celebrate its 100th anniversary. In 2015, Leaf Brands acquired the trademark and resurrected Hydrox again, marketing it as the non-Oreo alternative, free of high-fructose corn syrup. Its story is a powerful lesson in how branding, not just quality or originality, can determine a product’s fate.
