PUBLIC SCREAMS FOR CHOCOLATE CREME OREOS

BARBARA MURRAY

NORTHFIELD, Ill. -- Nabisco's new Chocolate Creme Oreo cookies are disappearing from store shelves and, in some cases, were not being replenished quickly.

Newspaper ads that ran on Aug. 12 -- placed by the brand's owner, Kraft Foods, here -- bragged, "It took us 89 years to come up with Chocolate Creme Oreo and this is all we have to show for it." Below was a sprinkling of chocolate crumbs, and a message that consumers now would be able to find the cookies on grocers' shelves.

"It was kind of a nationwide situation, but there were eight markets where we ran the ads: Chicago, New York, Charlotte, Pittsburgh, Las Vegas, Cincinnati, Denver and Minneapolis," said Larry Baumann, spokesman, Kraft Foods. He told SN that Kraft was not able to meet the demand for much of the summer. The ad was designed to alert people that if they had been looking for the product, they would now be able to find it, he said.

The manager of a large Dahl's Food Markets unit in Des Moines, Iowa, said they'd been out of stock on the cookies for three weeks. "When they first came out in May, they didn't go," said Brian Nardeau, "but six weeks later, they did. They keep telling us they are having production problems.

"But they're [Nabisco] not the only ones who launch a new product and then can't keep up with demand."

Bill Terry, a buyer for Bashas' Markets, Chandler, Ariz., said the chocolate creme sandwich cookies had just launched there and he saw no problem.

Lisa Allen, a spokeswoman for the Grocery Manufacturers of America, Washington, called the Oreos ad "pretty smart publicity. It generates an anticipation -- and a buzz."