Hydrox holdouts: get your nostalgia ready

If Kellogg Company (NYSE:K) just responded with a sympathetic letter to the thousand of customers complaining that they retired the Hydrox (the older, better, version of the Oreo), they would have won fans. If they just decided to bring the cookie quietly back for all of us who wanted it back, we would have been grateful. (They just announced they'll bring it back "while supplies last" starting in August.) Oh, if only Microsoft were that responsive to people who want to stick with XP.) But now they're having a contest to see who is the biggest Hydrox fan. I am completely delighted.

For only two weeks, you've got a chance to show Kellogg why you're the biggest Hydrox geek in the country. From Monday June 30 to July 14, you send the story of your love affair with Hydrox. Three winners receive a six-month supply of Hydrox cookies. (I'm not sure if that includes the hoarding that Hydrox fans will inevitably do.) They get a trip to New York for the unveiling. Then, oddly, they win a chance to see the closing bell ceremony at the NYSE. A chance, mind you, not a guaranteed ticket to Wall and Broad. Why the four o'clock bell is supposed to be so enticing--and why Kellogg didn't have the juice to get a few more tickets--is beyond me.

Since this is an internet contest, I think they are skewing the odds heavily in favor of the Gen X and Baby Boomer crowd. I'm personally rooting for the heroes of they Hydrox movement. I'm rooting for Kim Burton, who created this online homage to Hydrox. And surely there should be a seat at the table for Paul Lukas who wrote Oreos to Hydrox: Resistance is Futile for Fortune Magazine.

What most excites me about the contest is this: what Hydrox fans are pulling for is a full re-introduction instead of just a nostalgic special edition. The more Kellogg puts into the revival, the more likely that seems. Then all the Hydrox fans win.