How Oreos Got 40 Million Likes on Facebook—Joel Comm

When it comes to cookies, there’s only one choice-at least on Facebook. (Off Facebook, I’ll take whatever cookie I can get.) Nabisco’s Oreo brand has won Facebook. It’s creamed the opposition, dunked them until they crumble, and, well, you get the picture. Pepperidge Farms’ Milano, which according to one poll is America’s second-favorite store-bought cookie, had a Facebook following of just over 470,000 at the end of 2015. Oreo, the country’s number-one cookie choice, had amassed a Facebook audience of nearly 42 million.

That’s a tremendous difference and it’s not as though Milano isn’t trying. Pepperidge Farms typically posts between 12 and 14 pieces of content every month in a bid to win views and boost engagement, so the company’s social media team isn’t sitting in the canteen munching cookies all day. And yet their rivals at Nabisco are clearly doing better-nearly a hundred times better, in fact. So what are they doing that the Milano makers aren’t?

The Self-Reliant Generation—David Brooks

Last month Fox News released a poll showing Hillary Clinton leading Bernie Sanders in Iowa by 14 points. But the amazing part of the poll was the generation gap. Among likely caucusgoers under 45, Sanders was crushing Clinton 56 to 34 percent. Among the older voters, Clinton was leading 59 to 24.

When you look at numbers like that you get the impression that this millennial generation, having endured the financial crash and stagnant wages, is ready to lead a big leftward push.

Indeed, a Harvard Institute of Politics poll of Americans 18 to 29 found that 56 percent want a Democrat to win the White House while only 36 percent favor a Republican. The leftward shift is striking even within the G.O.P. According to the Pew Research Center, young Republicans are much more moderate than older Republicans. Among millennials who lean Republican, only 31 percent have consistently conservative views. About 51 percent have a mixture of liberal and conservative views.

Parenting in America—Pew Research Center

Contemporary debates about parenthood often focus on parenting philosophies: Are kids better off with helicopter parents or a free-range approach? What’s more beneficial in the long run, the high expectations of a tiger mom or the nurturing environment where every child is a winner? Is overscheduling going to damage a child or help the child get into a good college? While these debates may resonate with some parents, they often overlook the more basic, fundamental challenges many parents face – particularly those with lower incomes. A broad, demographically based look at the landscape of American families reveals stark parenting divides linked less to philosophies or values and more to economic circumstances and changing family structure.

KINDLE DEAL: Jesus Outside the Lines by Scott Sauls ($2.99)

Tags:  Election 2016 Marketing Millennials Oreos Parenting Pew Research Center Politics Social Media