Kellogg Agrees To Tone Down "Frosted Mini-Wheats Are Brain Food" Nonsense
What? It turns out that giving your kid a bowl of Frosted Mini-Wheats will not guarantee a nearly 20% uptick in classroom attentiveness, despite what Kellogg claims on packaging and TV? I probably should have figured that out on my own, but I rarely eat Frosted Mini-Wheats for breakfast, so I am quite likely retarded. Luckily for all of us, the cereal company just reached an agreement with the FTC to stop misleading consumers with its faux-scientific claims.
What's kind of sad is the FTC wasn't slapping Kellogg down over the way it implied that Frosted Mini-Wheats specifically, over other cereal brands, improved performance. Instead the FTC was concerned that Kellogg wasn't even representing the study's results honestly:
Kellogg's national TV ads asserted that attentiveness improved nearly 20 percent in children who ate the cereal, compared with those who skipped breakfast, the FTC said. But the study the ads refer to found a benefit from eating Frosted Mini-Wheats in only half the children studied, and only 11 percent of the children's attention improved 20 percent, according to the FTC.
The FTC and Kellogg agreement is called a "consent agreement" and is open to public comment until May 19th, at which time the FTC will decide whether to finalize it.
"Kellogg to settle FTC charges of false advertising" [via Rangelife] (Thanks to Eric!)
(Photo: stacy michelle)
Post a comment
Comments:
If you want your child to do better in school then why aren't you more involved in their school-life? Most parents don't even know what goes on in school and expect the Gooberment to regulate it for them.
But that's O.K. because the Gooberment ensures a certain below average economic equilibrium in order to make it too hard for parents to be able to spend time enough away from work to worry about what they are indoctrinating the children with...
So only 1/2 of 11% of children who ate Frosted Mini Wheats got a 20% temporary sugar high resulting in the appearance of attentiveness? Well, why didn't they just say so?
SCIENCE!
I appreciate that they signed a consent agreement to stop lying.
I hate it when people get nit-picky about ads.
Granted, frosted mini-wheats might not be the best brain food or breakfast food, but the commercial says: If your kid eats breakfast your kid will do better in school. There's numerous reasons for it, when you eat breakfast you're likely to interact more with your family in the morning, also when you eat breakfast it helps your energy levels throughout the day.
Sure, they say it with imagery of the cereal, but who can blame them for pushing their agenda?
They weren't exact on the numbers, for that, shame on you, fix your commercial.
I think the commercials are cute. Especially the frosted mini-wheats little bites. They're basically mini mini-wheats.
But my questing is this: How many kids actually EAT frosted mini-wheats? I didn't start eating them until I was in college, because I KNEW they were healthier for me than the fruit loops or coco pebbles. Honestly...most kids are wary to their parents making them eat healthy food.
I'm concerned about this study. Were some of the participating kids told they couldn't eat breakfast before school because someone wanted to see how tired it made them? That's mean.
My kids hate them and I didn't like them until recently.
I think the general statement should be 'Eat Breakfast, Do better in school'
@snowburnt: I think the issue is also that the commercial implies eating Frosted Mini Wheats specifically is what increases attentiveness, not just eating breakfast in general. At least, that's what I glean from the commercials anyway.
@unobservant: 1/2 of participants showed some improvement. Only 11% of the entire population of participants showed the advertised 20% improvement.
I still have no idea how they measured attentiveness.
Dear Kellogg:
Bring back Raisin Mini-Wheats.
That is all. <3
@snowburnt: This isn't getting "nit-picky". They flat-out lied about the effects of their cereal. If parents hear a study that says their kids will have a leg up on academic achievement by eating Mini-Wheats, of course they're going to buy them. But that's not what the study actually said, and the makers knew it. They readily agreed to stop lying when the FTC called them on it, which indicates they knew all along they were misrepresenting the study results and were just hoping to cash in until they got called on it.
awww I love those commercials. I'm not dim enough to think a sugar coated cereal is giving my kids a boost in the IQ department either. They are one of the better cereal options out there though and it's better than NOT eating breakfast.
My son, who's eight, actually prefers raisin bran.
I never eat breakfast. It upsets my stomach to eat so early after I wake up, so apparently I must be the DUMBEST PERSON EVER because I dare to go without frosted mini wheats.
@SuperNatendo: You must have been raised in the EU to make such a wild intellectually assertive statement.
Darn. I guess it's time to put the bowl down and go back to studying.
@Crabby Cakes: The last time I saw this ad, I paid attention to the language more just to see what it said. It didn't specifically say that the cereal improved performance, but actually eating breakfast. They implied that it would be the cereal. I think its funny that its on here now.
@SuperNatendo: By your logic, those parents that don't bother to hold down a job at all and have plenty of time with the kids should have the smartest children around.
@EdnaLegume: Unfortunately, thats not a sentiment shared by most people. It's tough to think when tv does it for you.
That's sad, I actually liked the commercials though. I kept waiting for something sarcastic to happen, or something bad, and it never did. It was like: "Wow, that frosted mini wheat and that accountant have a positive, real, heterosexual relationship. Good for them."
If the parents are gullible enough to believe that eating Frosted Mini Wheats will make their children star pupils, I suspect there is little chance that their offspring are going to be future members of the honor roll.
@Veeber: As long as I can set my watch to them.
Seriously, did anyone believe that your kid HAD to eat this cereal to do better in school? Hell, eating any sort of breakfast helps you out because you're able to focus on things due to the lack of pain and noise from your stomach.
My parents made sure I ate breakfast every morning and I turned out OK.
Dear Kelloggs:
Stop charging nearly $5 for a freakin' box of cereal.
signed,
The World
Sure, they say it with imagery of the cereal, but who can blame them for pushing their agenda?
@snowburnt: Apparently the FCC can if they lie in order to do it.
@joeblevins: I know. I'm the same way. My parents always made us eat something, even if it was just poptarts on the walk to school. And ya know what? Between me and 3 siblings, we all were on the honor roll, we never got into any fights, and were involved in a bunch of activities. So, I have to agree with the "eat breakfast and do better in school" mantra.
@Randa the Panda: i loooooooooooove frosted mini wheats! always have and always will. granted my mom really only bought cereal that was on sale that SHE liked to eat and cheerios for my dad.
@skizsrodt: That throws my feelings on this for a loop. If all they did was imply FMW would enhance better than other cereals, then I don't really care. If they clearly indicated that it would, then I have some concerns.
After all, don't most ads imply that using X is the best of all options in X's market?
I'm so smart after eating all that cereal that I'm now diabetic.
@skizsrodt: Those talking cereal things creep me out, but I'm definitely going to pay attention next time this commercial comes on.
@SuperNatendo: I completely agree. Kids need good role models. They need a mother and a father and a healthy home environment. They need their parents to care about them and their education.
Or, take the easy way out and give them a bowl of cereal!
By the way, if you haven't learned already that all advertising is designed only to get you to buy things, read up on advertising techniques. I've learned to disbelieve everything I read on a product label or hear in advertisements before I even read it.
@redskull: Dear Sir,
We need your moneys to conduct scientific studies, collect results, tamper with them, and then advertise so we sell more cereal.
Love,
Kellogs
@snowburnt: Misrepresenting a formal study is serious business.
If they had left it as "If your kid eats breakfast your kid will do better in school," or even "If your kid eats Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs your kid will do better in school," they might not have earned the FTC's ire. I thought that's all the commercials were, actually. I guess they got ahead of themselves and thought no one would catch on.
How shocking! Cereal is not a cure for ADD.
Nothing better to say than retarded, huh?
@Randa the Panda: I hate frosted mini-wheats with a passion. Hate them so much I haven't had them since I was 10. I hated them back then too. It tastes like powdered cardboard.
@snowburnt: No, it's not just using imagery to make the point that "eating breakfast is good for learning," but referencing this particular cereal.
The ads say, specifically:
Kids who had a filling breakfast of Frosted Mini Wheats Cereal improved their attentiveness by nearly 20% when compared to kids who missed out on breakfast
It would be a bit more honest to say it like this:
"Kids who eat breakfast learn better, and you as a parent will have an easier time luring them into breakfast if it's coated with sugar. Please consider Frosted Mini Wheats for this purpose."
@Magspie: One group that ate Mini Wheats, one that didn't eat anything, and a control group that ate something that looked like Mini Wheats but wasn't (perhaps some kind of shredded cardboard substitute).
@Radi0logy: Why? And there is nothing "garbage" about HFCS. If your going to tell me "it's made from corn, it's natural, it won't affect you in small amounts" please just stop yourself. Maybe if there was a way to only eat small amounts of HFCS it would be okay, BUT THERE'S NOT. It's in practically everything you pick up that is packaged. I've recently stopped eating packaged food or have only bought organic to get this crap out of my body and my life. Most people don't have the luxury of buying everything they eat at an inflated price b/c its organic or made with an alternative sweetner. SO YOU SHUT UP WITH YOUR TEENAGE EYEROLL COMMENTS THAT ARE NOT HELPFUL.
@axiomatic: ha! I laughed when I saw this commercial. Every time I eat cereal for breakfast I am so ravenous by 10:00 AM I am ready to kill. They're all carbs and no protein. It's really a terrible breakfast.
@Magspie: I'm going to guess that they had all the kids show up at a testing center in the morning (unfed), fed half breakfast, waited a little while, and then subjected them to whatever concentration tests they'd concocted.
@Saboth: I've seen the accountant commercial several times, and I'm still waiting for something sarcastic to happen. Like I forget there's not a gag in it. Every time. It's weird.
So if my child eats 8 bowls of frosted mini-wheats, he'll be able to fly, right?