Nutter Butter is an American sandwich cookie brand, first introduced in 1969 and currently owned by Nabisco, which is a subsidiary of Mondelez International.[1][2] The manufacturer claims it to be the best-selling American peanut butter sandwich cookie, with around a billion estimated to be eaten every year.[3][4]
Brand history
Nutter Butter by Nabisco was launched in 1969, but the details of its creation remain unknown. The distinctive design was thought to have been created by William A. Turnier, but Nabisco maintains that there is "no way of knowing who came up with the actual visual concept".[5] The company briefly ran an animated ad campaign in 1973 featuring the Nutter Butter Man, a mascot character that resembled Willy Wonka.
Nutter Butter has become synonymous with blood donation. The cookie became so beloved among blood donors that when the American Red Cross stopped offering it around Georgia in 1995, it was reported that donations dropped by 20,000 pints. The controversy ended the following year when Nabisco agreed to donate the Nutter Butters.[6][7]
2017
In December 2017, a Nutter Butter cereal line was launched by Post Consumer Brands.[8][9] It debuted at Walmart with a box retailing at around $4.[10]
2018
In October 2018, Krispy Kreme released Nutter Butter and Chips Ahoy! doughnuts which joined the pre-existing Oreo doughnuts.[11] The next year, in January 2019, chocolate fudge-covered Nutter Butters were released alongside similarly covered Oreos.[12]
2019
In May 2019, the CEO of Mondelez International, Dirk Van de Put announced in an interview with CNBC that the company was giving "serious consideration" to adding CBD to certain product lines such as Nutter Butter.[13] He did however say that adding CBD to its family brands "may not be in the company's best interest".[14]
In 2019, 7-Eleven started selling limited edition Nutter Butter lattes and doughnuts and A&W Restaurants launched Nutter Butter and Oreo flavored milkshakes and ice creams.[15][16] Among other products, Nutter Butter was noted as helping increase Mondelez's sales for the year, despite being one of the company's smaller brands.[17]
2021
In 2021, Nabisco announced it would launch a Nutter Butter version of the Oreo Cakesters in 2022.[18]
2023
From 2023, Nutter Butter implemented a viral marketing strategy on social media, including TikTok, Instagram and X, which gained widespread attention online in September 2024.[19][20] The strategy utilised nonsensical and absurdist humor and 'trippy' visuals, basing content around a range of mysterious characters.[19][20][21] In an interview with The New York Times, one of the brand's content creators suggested that the strategy had been prompted by the idea of a Nutter Butter cookie having a fever dream. It resulted in large numbers of interactions with the company's content; the Nutter Butter account had over a million followers by October 2024 and the ten videos that it posted in September 2024 gained more than 87 million views.[22]
External links
References
- Rhik Kundu. Mondelez set to bring global offerings to India LiveMint, 2 November 2018, retrieved 21 May 2019^
- Oreos vs. Nutter Butters: The Showdown Carter Blood Care, 30 June 2016, retrieved 21 May 2019^
- NUTTER BUTTER Mondelez International Foodservice, retrieved 21 May 2019^
- Sam Stall, Lou Harry, Julia Spalding. The Encyclopedia of Guilty Pleasures: 1001 Things You Hate to Love Quirk Books, 2004^
- Emily Wallace. The story of William A. Turnier, the man who designed the Oreo cookie Indy Week, 24 August 2011, retrieved 21 May 2019^
- NO COOKIE CRISIS HERE, BLOOD CENTERS SAY The Morning Call, 1996-01-21, retrieved 2025-06-26^
- Gift of cookies is for gift of life Tampa Bay Times, January 19, 1996, retrieved 2025-06-26^
- Nutter Butter® Cereal Post Consumer Brands, retrieved 22 May 2019^
- Chips Ahoy! And Nutter Butter cookie cereals make their debut Foodbev Media, 3 January 2018, retrieved 21 May 2019^
- Aly Walansky. Cookies for breakfast! Nutter Butter and Chips Ahoy cereals debut at Walmart Today, 14 December 2017, retrieved 21 May 2019^
- Sam Blum. Krispy Kreme Is Unleashing New Nutter Butter and Chips Ahoy! Donuts Thrillist, 4 October 2018, retrieved 21 May 2019^
- Lea Rose Emery. Fudge Covered Nutter Butters Have Hit Shelves & They Look Truly Decadent Bustle, 24 January 2019, retrieved 21 May 2019^
- Sean Williams. 3 Brand-Name Food and Beverage Companies That Want In on the Marijuana Craze The Motley Fool, 18 May 2019, retrieved 21 May 2019^
- Half-baked? Oreo-maker Mondelez is considering adding CBD to its cookies and snacks NBC News, 2 May 2019, retrieved 21 May 2019^
- Nutter Butter's Origin Remains a Mystery in Spite of Its Decades of Staying Power Adweek, 5 November 2019, retrieved 12 July 2023^
- A&W Debuted 2 New Desserts Made With Both Oreo AND Nutter Butter Delish, 2 August 2019, retrieved 12 July 2023^
- Mondelez Raises Yearly Forecast as Cookies and Chocolate Help Results The Wall Street Journal, 30 July 2019, retrieved 20 August 2021^
- Mondelēz to launch Nutter Butter Cakesters Foodbev Media, 8 October 2021, retrieved 12 July 2023^
- Joseph Lamour. The Nutter Butter TikTok account is going viral for being absolutely unhinged Today, NBC UNIVERSAL, 20 September 2024, retrieved 30 September 2024^
- Inside Nutter Butter’s bizarre TikTok strategy—what brands can learn from the absurdist humor AdAge, 27 September 2024, retrieved 21 January 2025^
- Enter the "Nutterverse," Nutter Butter’s trippy TikTok rebrand Tubefilter, 10 September 2024, retrieved 21 January 2025^
- A Haunted House, Psychedelic Cats and Shrimp: Inside Nutter Butter’s Fever Dream The New York Times, 7 October 2024, retrieved 21 January 2025^