LITTLETON, Colo. — A local woman says she entered the My Oreo Creation contest, her idea was picked as a finalist, yet she's never been acknowledged by Oreo as a winner.
Taylor Young, of Lone Tree, submitted her idea for a cherry cola flavored Oreo last May.
Shortly after submitting her idea, she received a note from Oreo and its parent company, Mondelez International, Inc., that read, "Dear Taylor Young, Thanks for sending us your idea. We thought it was so delicious, we turned it into this one-of-a-kind creation just for you. Straight from the wonder vault. Enjoy!"
They also sent her a small packet with two cherry cola flavored Oreo cookies inside.
"It is pretty good,” Young said. “I tried it.”
Young was on cloud nine.
The contest states all finalists are awarded $25,000. And it states the person who submits the winning flavor will win $500,000.
“I, from what I can tell, was the first person to tweet that idea," Young said.
But then, for Young, the contest turned sour. Oreo stopped communicating with her. Months went by and in December, she saw her cookie on store shelves.
“I reached out to them and I said, 'I'm seeing that my cookie won," Young said.
Oreo finally responded saying in part, cherry cola was already in development — so it wasn't her idea, it was theirs.
"That's not cool," Young said. "If they claim that they already had it in their back pocket, then they don't need to provide prizes to anyone."
Oreo and its parent company did not respond to a request for comment. Young finds the whole thing to be disingenuous.
“I'm old enough to realize that life isn't always fair,” Young said. “But, if there was a kid who came up with this - and their mom and dad submitted it and they saw it on the shelves, that's really sad. No one deserves that.”
