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I'VE HAD the unique opportunity of running global snack food accounts at not one, or two, but three very different agencies: Nabisco at FGB, Frito-Lay at BBDO and Cadbury Adams at J. Walter Thompson. In the process, I've learned a few things about how to-and how not to -get great advertising that works. Some of these lessons, of course, can apply not just to food advertising but also to advertising in general.
Lesson No. 1: A good idea can, and should travel.
We were running advertising for Oreo cookies in the U.S. called the "Twist, Lick and Dunk" campaign featuring the popular ritual of how to eat an Oreo cookie: twist apart the wafers, lick the inside creme, reassemble the cookie, dunk it in milk and eat it. In truth, less than half of all consumers actually eat Oreos like this. But it was a great way to get the viewer involved with the product in a way unique to sandwich cookies, of which Oreo is far-and-away the market leader.
The campaign worked extremely well in the U.S. and the agency was able to pool out the idea with a father teaching his son, a grandfather teaching his granddaughter, and even a boy teaching a dog. Oreo became the No. 1 cookie in the U.S.
After Nabisco consolidated its nonU.S. business with us, we had a hunch that the ritual could be used in other countries as well. At the time there were...