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)

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