Credit: Amazon StudiosLife is very surprising. The many things we would not have expected to happen in 2023 so far include the long-awaited, much-touted Ezra Miller movie The Flash absolutely tanking at the box office, the Walt Disney Company being at war with the state of Florida, and Ryan Reynolds purchasing yet another sports team (well, that one actually makes sense). Another thing can add to that: one of HBO’s biggest stars somehow developing an online feud with Oreo cookies, the iconic chocolate sandwich cookie beloved by millions.
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That is just the kind of world that we live in, however, because it turns out that musician/actor Abel Tesfaye (also known as the Weeknd, though he seems to be minimizing that these days) spent the last several days feuding with the official Oreo cookies Twitter account. How does a person with four Grammy Awards, 2o Billboard Music Awards, and an Academy Award nomination get into it with Oreo, a snack treat known for being very dunkable? Let’s get into it.
Abel Tesfaye Currently Stars in HBO’s ‘The Idol’
Some backstory: currently, Abel Tesfaye is starring in The Idol, an HBO series he co-created with Euphoria‘s Sam Levinson and Reza Fahim. Tesfaye portrays a sleazy cult leader named Tedros who slowly takes over the career (and life) of troubled pop star Jocelyn (Lily-Rose Depp, daughter of Johnny); the first season of the show has mostly been pretty negative reviews, with the series generally viewed as poorly written, thinly characterized, and borderline softcore porn.
None of that has to do with Oreo cookies, but it appears that the brand’s official Twitter account has embraced the kind of sassy pop commentary pioneered by Wendy’s official Twitter. When it was reported that HBO had declined to pick up a second season of The Idol, the Twitter account (which, once again, is apparently intended to promote Oreo cookies rather than celebrity feuds) chimed in with a snarky “Finally some good news.”
finally some good news
— OREO Cookie (@Oreo) June 15, 2023
The Future of ‘The Idol’ Is Still up in the Air
The Tweet that Oreo responded was swiftly tagged with a disclaimer noting that HBO had not yet made any statement about the second season of The Idol (as well as official statements to that effect by the studio itself). However, it seemed to have caught the attention of the Weeknd. When Oreo once again came after The Idol in another Tweet, Tesfaye replied “Don’t make me dunk you in some milk,” which certainly sounds like a threat to anyone, let alone a cookie.
It seems that Abel Tesfaye then was made aware of the previous snark, saying “Oh f*** they been talkin s***” in a since deleted Tweet.
Happily for everyone involved, the singer/actor would later go on to make some peace with Oreo, saying there were too many “beautiful memories” to fight and that he planned to dunk them in champagne later, which sounds terrible. It sounds like the Weeknd has at least a little bit of a sense of humor about The Idol, or maybe he just didn’t want to invoke the full anger of Nabisco. We wouldn’t.