When it came to the 1980s, everything was bigger and bolder. Men and women of the time rocked big hairstyles while muscular giants like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone dominated the over the top action movies of the 1980s. So not surprisingly during the 1980s was when Oreo introduced it’s largest cookie ever, the “Oreo Big Stuf”.
Yes the legendary Oreo Big Stuf (now discontinued) was the stuff fat kids from the 80s everywhere still salivate over when they come to mind. But what was this legendary snack about and why did it all of a sudden fall off the face of the earth?
Origins Of Oreo Big Stuf
If you’re not familiar with Oreo Big Stuf, basically it was a gigantic Oreo cookie. They were packaged individually and came in boxes of 10. To give you an idea of the size of this thing, here’s a picture of this behemoth next to traditional sized oreos.
As you can see this bad boy dwarfed it’s counterparts. It also had a massive calorie count to boot. Each Oreo Big Stuf had 316 calories and 13 grams of fat! Contrast that to your standard Oreo cookie which as roughly 53 calories and 2 grams of fat each, the Oreo Big Stuf was definitely not friendly to your waistline.
I mean after all, what did you expect from an Oreo cookie the size of your hand? Here’s a commercial from the 1980s advertising the Oreo Big Stuf, you can see just by how they hold them how large these cookies were.
The Downfall Of Oreo Big Stuf
Nobody really knows why Oreo Big Stuf was discontinued in 1991 only after a 7 year run. Obviously the product was not selling well, so one can only speculate as to the reasons why.
Many believe it was the fact that the 1980s was really a time when people began to be more health conscious and aware of what they were putting in their bodies.
Diet Coke was introduced in 1982 as a huge hit, and going to the gym became much more mainstream with the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger and other cultural icons making fitness and nutrition popular. So having a giant Oreo with more than half the calories of a cheeseburger in your pocket probably wasn’t seen as such a great health choice.
Furthermore there was a functionality issue with Oreo Big Stuf. You couldn’t exactly dunk a Big Stuf into a glass of milk, and forget trying to separate the two sides to lick the creamy middle. Those are two hallmarks that make an Oreo cookie popular, and these were woefully overlooked when creating the Oreo Big Stuf.
Also if you think about it having a giant Oreo isn’t always practical, and in fact it really demands a commitment. With a smaller traditional sized Oreo you can eat as many or as little as you want. However the Big Stuf required you to commit to eating it all or you’d just toss it in the trash as waste.
Regardless of why Oreo Big Stuf disappeared, it still was pretty cool that you could get an Oreo cookie the size of your hand during most of the 80s. And again this is just another reason why the 1980s will always be the coolest decade ever.
