Dana Ganci and the Oreo cookie


Oreo cookies have been eaten and washed down throughout periods of momentous historical importance. On the celebration of the Oreo’s 100th birthday there were  many such highlights to contemplate. The Oreo, points out the Christian Science Monitor, is “older than the sinking of the Titanic (by a month), women’s voting rights, and the Russian Revolution.”

Advertising Design alumna Dana Ganci, ’10, who is Junior Art Director at Draftcb, worked on an ad campaign that captures cultural moments the Oreo survived — from Prohibition and the Moon walk to Pac Man and “Jaws.”  Her team was asked to “brainstorm events and create visual executions that incorporated Oreos and milk into those events,” said Ganci.

The Oreo survives Prohibition

Milk is still the favored beverage to accompany Oreos. Perhaps we can thank Prohibition.

“We came up with hundreds of ideas and covered the office with our sketches,” says Ganci. “Working with creative directors from Draftfcb Paris, our chief creative officer and group creative director, along with other creative directors on the Oreo brand, [we] narrowed down which events they wanted to highlight.”

Reflections on One Giant Step for Mankind

Christian Science Monitor reports that 490 billion Oreos have been sold in the cookie’s hundred year history. One on top of another, the Oreo stack would be two million miles high — ten times further than the Moon.

“I got to help with laying the images out, with the copy and logo to create the full ads.  I worked with two other art directors and a designer at this phase. We ended up doing 17 ads total.”

The Oreo cookie shark looking for beach-goers

“In the end I was responsible for laying them out and adapting them for various publications (three of the ads broke in People’s Oscar issue and another ran in Food and Family), tablets (digital versions for the iPad), and a digital billboard in Times Square.

Oreo Pac-Man

Pac-Man was a popular arcade game when Ronald Reagan was president. Oreos are the right shape for a Pac-Man.

A pop-up party was held in Union Square to celebrate the 100th birthday. “I worked with a really great team to execute everything. It was a ton of work, but such an awesome, rewarding experience,” says Ganci.

Images used with permission


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