The article I choose to read and write about is Tricksters and the Marketing of Breakfast Cereals by Thomas Green. The writer did an excellent job summarizing the history of cereal, including it’s earlier misleading advertising plots, and bought the reader into the 21st century quite smoothly.
The history of cereal begins in the late 1800’s when Sylvester Graham began spouting out claims that people couldn’t live off of meat alone and it was bad for their digestive tract. He pushed bran, wheat and flour out there stating that it was morally right and would cure all digestive problems. In addition, he was determined to show that eating just meat promoted an unhealthy lifestyle riddled with weakness and unethical wants and needs – drinking and excessive sex. There were a lot of religious connotations with eating bran, vegetables and fruits. Staying away from meat would keep you pure and not yearn an unhealthy lifestyle.
At the tail end of the 1800’s Kellogg came out with the first breakfast food named Granose. Prepared with wheat it was tough to chew unless left to sit in water to soften up. But although he was the first man to put out a cereal it was Post who came up with the most effective marketing campaign. He claimed that all these aliments existed from drinking coffee and other unhealthy drinks but provided a substitute – Postum. It was a replacement for coffee and he had all of these special powers that would make the consumers healthy. After this took off he introduced Grape Nuts and Post Toasties and claimed by eating these breakfast products and drinking coffee replacements the consumer would feel great. There were many false and undocumented slogans that famous people endorsed, which help substantiate it’s claims. Kellogg came out with similar breakfast cereals that also associated it’s good traits with religious connections and also claiming it will provide a healthy and happy lifestyle.
As time passed the unsubstantiated claims continued and morphed into a type of trickery that appealed to children and adults alike. Advertising took the form of an animal or person forever hungry for cereal and willing to do whatever it takes to get the cereal – like Trix the rabbit. Cereal companies adopted mascots that either looked like the cereal or was a villain that was in search of the cereal. To connect the beginning days to current days you will see that the makers of cereal, like Post and Kellogg used lies and deceit to promote their cereal. Claims of being unholy and damming your body was the reasoning. In modern day cereal companies still use the same philosophy, using Trix the rabbit, Post’s Frutty and Cocoa Pebbles - the victim and the trickster (hiding the cereal from one another) as the characters cast to show they were trying to trick the consumers into believing the cereal is mystical and wonderful. Take Lucky Charms, he is always trying to trick the kids to keep them away from the cereal like it was some mythical amazing cereal that held wonders. The patterns in all the cereal makers have the same theme.
In addition to the advertising there is the marketing of the boxes of cereal. Even in the beginning of cereal the box had some type of design that showed there was mystical or magical powers that made the cereal wonderful. Snap, Crackle and Pop was the three ingredients that made Rice Krispies desirable to the consumer.
A last little tidbit about the cereal industry is the rising costs beginning to get noticed in the 1990’s. The cost of a box of cereal exceeded any other product in the grocery store, which brought the attention of the government. As a result, General Mills was the first one to step forward and volunteered to lower the prices of their cereal, which caused other manufacturers to follow suit. With this change the advertising has slightly shifted to focusing on the healthy nutrients and boasting weight conscious cereals. Although Trix the rabbit and Tony the Tiger are still around, they are not as prominent as they were 30 years ago.
The point of this article was to shine light on the origins of the tricks and tricksters of the cereal industry and how it has evolved over the last century. I enjoyed the article, although some of the mythical and mystical references were a bit dry and long and I had a hard time connecting them to the original point.
I choose this article because I have a daughter that loves all the characters of the cereal and is also a huge television commercial junkie. Kids are so naïve and believe so much that is on television these days. In this day of age I am grateful that we have documented claims of what healthy benefits go into cereal.
The history of cereal begins in the late 1800’s when Sylvester Graham began spouting out claims that people couldn’t live off of meat alone and it was bad for their digestive tract. He pushed bran, wheat and flour out there stating that it was morally right and would cure all digestive problems. In addition, he was determined to show that eating just meat promoted an unhealthy lifestyle riddled with weakness and unethical wants and needs – drinking and excessive sex. There were a lot of religious connotations with eating bran, vegetables and fruits. Staying away from meat would keep you pure and not yearn an unhealthy lifestyle.
At the tail end of the 1800’s Kellogg came out with the first breakfast food named Granose. Prepared with wheat it was tough to chew unless left to sit in water to soften up. But although he was the first man to put out a cereal it was Post who came up with the most effective marketing campaign. He claimed that all these aliments existed from drinking coffee and other unhealthy drinks but provided a substitute – Postum. It was a replacement for coffee and he had all of these special powers that would make the consumers healthy. After this took off he introduced Grape Nuts and Post Toasties and claimed by eating these breakfast products and drinking coffee replacements the consumer would feel great. There were many false and undocumented slogans that famous people endorsed, which help substantiate it’s claims. Kellogg came out with similar breakfast cereals that also associated it’s good traits with religious connections and also claiming it will provide a healthy and happy lifestyle.
As time passed the unsubstantiated claims continued and morphed into a type of trickery that appealed to children and adults alike. Advertising took the form of an animal or person forever hungry for cereal and willing to do whatever it takes to get the cereal – like Trix the rabbit. Cereal companies adopted mascots that either looked like the cereal or was a villain that was in search of the cereal. To connect the beginning days to current days you will see that the makers of cereal, like Post and Kellogg used lies and deceit to promote their cereal. Claims of being unholy and damming your body was the reasoning. In modern day cereal companies still use the same philosophy, using Trix the rabbit, Post’s Frutty and Cocoa Pebbles - the victim and the trickster (hiding the cereal from one another) as the characters cast to show they were trying to trick the consumers into believing the cereal is mystical and wonderful. Take Lucky Charms, he is always trying to trick the kids to keep them away from the cereal like it was some mythical amazing cereal that held wonders. The patterns in all the cereal makers have the same theme.
In addition to the advertising there is the marketing of the boxes of cereal. Even in the beginning of cereal the box had some type of design that showed there was mystical or magical powers that made the cereal wonderful. Snap, Crackle and Pop was the three ingredients that made Rice Krispies desirable to the consumer.
A last little tidbit about the cereal industry is the rising costs beginning to get noticed in the 1990’s. The cost of a box of cereal exceeded any other product in the grocery store, which brought the attention of the government. As a result, General Mills was the first one to step forward and volunteered to lower the prices of their cereal, which caused other manufacturers to follow suit. With this change the advertising has slightly shifted to focusing on the healthy nutrients and boasting weight conscious cereals. Although Trix the rabbit and Tony the Tiger are still around, they are not as prominent as they were 30 years ago.
The point of this article was to shine light on the origins of the tricks and tricksters of the cereal industry and how it has evolved over the last century. I enjoyed the article, although some of the mythical and mystical references were a bit dry and long and I had a hard time connecting them to the original point.
I choose this article because I have a daughter that loves all the characters of the cereal and is also a huge television commercial junkie. Kids are so naïve and believe so much that is on television these days. In this day of age I am grateful that we have documented claims of what healthy benefits go into cereal.
4 comments:
Janine,
The article you analyzed was not what I expected. I learned much more about cereal than I really wanted to know. I also felt the author did a good job of taking the reader through the history of cereal but the mythical and mystical stuff was a little, well a lot, over my head. I feel that I need to read some more literature to truly understand his connections he was making.
I did not realize the religious and sanitarium background that cereal had. I thought it was kind of interesting how even back in the 1800’s that advertising targeted the beliefs and fears of the people of that time. Can you imagine the cereal industry today, stating that you should eat cereal instead of beef? I think there would be many law suits. I know the article never really went into why the cereal industry switched from promoting a healthier way of life to some of the sugar induced cereals of today. I feel this because our culture and our eating habits, which I feel plays a part in the obesity of our children.
I remember when I was growing up, telling my Mother of the cereal I just had to have. She bought the cereal; well actually it was the “off” brand and she said the “named” brand was just too expensive and this was the same thing. If anyone has bought cereal recently, I feel it is still expensive. If you go into any supermarkets, what cereals are on the bottom two shelves? I never thought about this until I took a marketing class several years ago. There are many “tricks” used the in the cereal industry and I didn’t realize their roots. Thank you for your well accomplished summary and views.
Trina
Cereal has always been one of those items that I loved as a kid. I remember begging my mother for Captian Crunch everytime she went out so I could have the UPC on the back for that one special prize you could send away for. I remember after 2 months of eating Captian Crunch I never wanted to see that cereal ever again.
When I go to the store and see all the cereal choices in the one aisle trying to get the attention of kids it is amazing that kids can even know what they want.
Reading this article and see how this has been around longer then I realized was interesting. I assumed marketing strategies was something that hit more after the 1950 and didn't think about how items were sold prior to that.
Janine,
I found you article interesting,but like most others, a little complicated to follow at times. But, I really like how you broke it down in your analysis. I had heard of Mr. Kellogg's first attempt at cereal, but nothing about Mr. Post. I was surprised how misleading advertising used to be. I guess today it still can be, just not as obvious.
Janine -
WOW! Never new all that went into Cereal marketing. Not even close to what I was expecting. What was really interesting, was concepts of vegetarians were included in the marketing of cereal.
I had heard rumors about the placement of cereal in stores, but really didn't think much of it. After reading the article, I can see more than placement in stores is cruicial to sucessful marketing.
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