LITTLETON, CO (KMGH/CNN) - A Colorado woman says she submitted an idea for an Oreo cookie flavor which the company subsequently used.
But she's crying foul because she never got the prize that was promised to her since the product was a finalist in the My Oreo Creation Contest.
Taylor Young of Lone Tree, CO, submitted the Cherry Cola idea to Oreo a year ago.
"It was really exciting," said Young.
She got an immediate response.
"Shortly after, I got a little box with two Cherry Cola cookies," Young said.
Young received a note which said, "Dear Taylor, Thanks for sending us your idea. We thought it was so delicious, we turned it into this one-of-a-kind creation just for you."
Young was delighted.
After all, the winning flavor takes home $500,000.
"From what I can tell, I was the first person to tweet that idea," she said.
But then for Young the contest went sour.
Oreo stopped communicating with her.
And then in December she saw her cookie on store shelves.
"I reached out to them and I said, 'I'm seeing that my cookie won,' " Young said.
Oreo finally responded saying, Cherry Cola was already in development so it wasn't her idea. It was Oreo’s.
"That's not cool," Young said. "But if they claim that they already had it in their back pocket, then they don't need to provide prizes to anyone."
Oreo and its parent company had no response for local media.
Young finds the whole thing disingenuous.
Copyright 2018 KMGH via CNN. All rights reserved.
