Class 3

When I saw the title of this week’s article, “How Oreos Got 40 Million Likes on Facebook,” I couldn’t help but immediately think about the “World Record Egg.” If you aren’t aware, an egg, yes, a simple photo of a brown, uncooked, shelled egg, broke Kylie Jenner’s former world record for the most likes of any photo on Instagram. Similarly, the Oreo Cookie has amassed a Facebook audience of almost 42 million, the most of any cookie on Facebook. However, the way Nabisco’s Oreo got their way to the top took a lot more than just one photo of their product.

The article discussed how their transition from still images to native videos resulted in increased post views. Author Joel Comm described their videos as “funny doodles — easy to share capable of spreading a message with a quick look.” I think this is an important distinction to make. Last week, I read that, on Instagram, people actually prefer images as opposed to videos. It seems that a lot of the time, people do not want to take the time to watch a video. However, Oreo’s “doodle” videos sound like they are quick animations that only take a few seconds to view. It makes sense that these types of videos would garner more views, especially on a platform like Facebook that tends to be less visual/aesthetically pleasing compared to Instagram. On the other hand, I was surprised that Oreo’s “#playwithoreo” campaign was deemed successful. I just do not see myself nor many people I know taking the time to upload a picture or a video for themselves, especially if there is no incentive.

Generally, it seems as though Oreo has found ways to make a simple product exciting, interactive, and culturally adept.