I’m almost certain that this little piece of viral entertainment was commissioned by Oreo.

It doesn’t matter, it’s fun anyway.

I think we all like the idea of people & their passions; that someone would spend so much time creating a machine to do what a knife could do in about 5 seconds….. A passion for the pointless.

On first watch I just enjoyed it for the sheer oddness, but then something else got me thinking…

In this ad and many others, Oreo plays with this tension between the cookie fans and the cream fans. They’re creating the tension themselves, and in doing so they’re encouraging watchers to pick a team. In doing so, however, they’re also encouraging the viewer to be “anti” one half of their product.
They commission this guy to make an ad for them & in it he’s saying that he can’t stand half of what they sell!

Even more amazingly it works!

Why so?

My best guess is that, no matter which team you pick, the overall flavour of the sales pitch is that the element you do love is so good that it’s worth dealing with the inconvenience of the part you may not like.

If you like both cookie AND cream (actually I suspect it’s “creme.” I suspect the filling has a closer affinity with a factory than we a cow) then you are doubly blessed!

As in my tendency, such things always make me reflect on Christian truths.

I wonder whether the church struggles because we want to sell ourselves as being 100% good.

You should always love church: all the people are nice, friendly, engaging all the time: sermons are always easy to listen to: when you’re a part of the church family there will never be any struggles in your life.

But the truth is that sometimes the church is hard to love. There might be bits of family that we like & things that frustrate & annoy us!

BUT

To know the God who made us and loves us, to know who we truly are, why we were created & to have a blueprint for the life well lived, surely this is worthy enough that it makes those frustrations we might have from time to time worth the inconvenience.

I certainly pray that our community in Kincumber is one where people enjoy both the “cookie and the cream.” I work hard to make sure that we’re a warm, genuine, engaged community, but in the end it’s helpful to be reminded that we’re just a community of imperfect people, but we come together to worship God, and He, the “whole” is far greater than this little part.