I was wondering the insidious way they would monetize but I think you nailed it.

Drink Your Ovaltine

OREOS will be the answer once a week.

Hah, I've seen that so many times now... are you a regular NYT crossword solver, too?

Are you serious? They sneak brand names into crosswords?

I'm actually not sure if you're serious or not, but yes there are brand names in NYT crossword puzzles. No, they don't get paid for it.

OREO is a famous one because it's a short vowel heavy word, and can more easily fit into puzzles. Because of that, it shows up quite often in puzzles.

Eliminating brand names, or any significant category of words, would probably hurt the quality of the crosswords. What's next? No movie references in the clues if the answer is an actor?

> No movie references in the clues if the answer is an actor?

I would welcome that. Let's leave the actors and athletes out of the crosswords.

So no pop culture references at all?

Jeez that sounds like an extremely boring crossword.

There's some people who want that. I hate names when there's too many since I'll end up getting Naticked, but I certainly wouldn't want them gone!