The incoming Web queries for a website are like an oracle: sometimes we can see trends or growing problems by reading them, like when people had trouble with the Gree dehumidifier recall. Sometimes searchers find us when they search for the answers to questions that we had never thought to ask. Last week, someone asked Google whether Honey Nut Cheerios contain any nuts. The short answer: No. [More]
general mills
General Mills, Girl Scouts Go After Makers Of Liquid Nicotine Over Trademarked Names
By 5.27.14
Though the makers of e-cigarettes say their devices aren’t marketed to children, some companies that make liquid nicotine are not only using candy and fruit flavors that are forbidden from regular tobacco, but they’re using trademarked names of well-known snacks, sweets, and cereals. This isn’t sitting well with the companies that hold those trademarks. [More]
General Mills Thinks You’re Stupid, But Decides To Not Take Customers’ Legal Rights Away After All
By 4.20.14
While all sorts of big-name financial, tech, e-commerce, and telecom companies have been trying to take away consumers’ right to sue by inserting forced-arbitration clauses in their contracts and terms of service, it seemed ridiculous to think that the makers of cereal would resort to such deviousness, or how they would even be able to do it. But last week, General Mills tried, adding language to its website that stripped certain customers of their access to legal redress against the company. Realizing that maybe this might tick off an awful lot of people, the company has backed off this policy change. [More]
Stories You Might Have Missed Because You Were Too Busy Being Awesome
April 19, 2014
We post a lot of stories during the week, and we know that most of you have jobs, families, lives, hobbies, nagging itches and other more important things to do than read every single thing we write. So for those who might be playing catch-up on the weekend, here are some of the things you might have missed… [More]
General Mills’ New Policy: If You Engage With Us Online, You Can Never Sue The Company
By 4.17.14
Companies want customers to engage with them online as if they’re just another pal on Facebook or Twitter, one that can offer downloadable coupons and promote contests with attractive prizes. But in new language recently added to General Mills’ website, consumers who interact with the company online will be agreeing to give up the right to sue the company in the future. [More]
The Consumerist Quiz: Can You Match Popular Food Brands With Their Corporate Parents?
March 21, 2014
How closely do you pay attention to the companies that make the products you and your family eat every day? Many of the most popular brands of packaged food and beverage items in the U.S. are owned by the same few dozen multinational companies, some of whom own several competing brands. It’s time to test your knowledge of which big companies are filling your pantry. [More]
Fictional Character Betty Crocker Provides Real Cakes For Minnesota’s First Gay Weddings
By 7.31.13
People worldwide continue to disagree vehemently on the subject of civil marriage for same-sex couples, but everyone can agree that free cake is a nice thing. The first legally binding gay marriages in Minnesota will happen after midnight on August 1st, and three lucky couples will have free wedding cakes courtesy of Minnesota-based General Mills. [More]
More Than 40% Of All Lucky Charms Cereal Eaten By Adults
By 6.28.13
Back in January, venerable sugary-cereal brand Lucky Charms launched a new ad campaign aimed at a novel demographic: adults. Adults? Don’t grown-ups eat cereals filled with wheat bran and nuts and dried fruit? Well… no. [More]
Lucky Charms Wants To Remind Adults Of Their Sugary Sweet Childhoods
By 12.3.12
In case all the recent Twinkie talk hasn’t been enough to turn your thoughts to a youth spent gorging on sugary snacks without a care, General Mills is hoping you’ll want to ride a sweet wave of nostalgia back to a past where breakfast included a rainbow of rock-hard marshmallows in your bowl of Lucky Charms. [More]
Want Tinted, Flavored Cereal Milk All Year? Start Stockpiling Franken Berry & Count Chocula Now
By 10.26.12
We all want what we want when we want it. But there are those among us who practice patience in their desire for a particular product due to the fact that it’s only around for a limited time. No, not the McRib — we’re talking sugary, often electric-neon colored kiddie cereals: Boo Berry, Count Chocula and Franken Berry. Says one adult fan of the stuff, when it’s on the shelves in October, “I eat as much Boo Berry as I can.” [More]
General Mills Resurrects Jolly Green Giant; What Other Characters Deserve A Second Coming?
By 9.17.12
Like a lot of older actors who just assumed had died years ago, we didn’t realize until recently that the frozen veggie-shilling Jolly Green Giant had gone missing for most of the last decade. But after eight years of lying dormant in the back of the freezer with that block of peas you don’t remember buying and never quite feel like eating, General Mills has decided to bring back the 84-year-old character in a move to get kids eating vegetables. [More]
Setting Cheerios On Fire Outside General Mills Office Is Maybe Not The Best Way To Voice Opinion On Same-Sex Marriage
By 8.6.12
Whatever your opinion on same-sex marriage (and the companies whose executives may oppose or support it), you certainly have the right to express your beliefs. However, we are pretty sure that only bad things can happen if your protest involves an attempt to ignite a bowl of Cheerios in public. [More]
General Mills Must Defend Claim That Fruit Roll-Ups Are "Made With Real Fruit"
By 5.11.12
It’s been a while since we heard any updates on that class-action lawsuit against General Mills over its claims that Fruit Roll-Ups are “made with real fruit.” Well, yesterday the judge in the case gave it the go-ahead to proceed. [More]
Wheaties Are Totally Boring, But Not Healthy Enough For Boring People
By 3.22.12
One would think, considering Americans’ sudden love of all things whole-grain, that the classic General Mills cereal Wheaties would be doing well. Instead, sales of the cereal have been falling for years, and no one seems interested in other cereals under the Wheaties brand. It’s all because the cereal is simultaneously boring and not boring enough. [More]
Class-Action Lawsuit Claims Fruit Roll-Ups Are Unhealthy, Contain Little Fruit
By 10.19.11
Do phrases like “low fat,” “gluten-free,” “made with real fruit” and “good source of vitamin C” on the package of a processed fruit snack product make you think that the product is a healthy food? These phrases have all been on the packaging of fruit-like snack substances from General Mills: Froot by the Foot, Fruit Roll-Ups, and Gushers. Marketing copy on the front of a box is no substitute for taking a moment to read nutrition information and ingredients. But that hasn’t stopped the Center for Science in the Public Interest from filing a class-action lawsuit alleging that the company tried to make consumers believe that their products were wholesome and fruit-based, not full of trans fats, preservatives, and food coloring. [More]
Cheech & Chong Still Encouraging Baby Boomers To Get High… On Fiber
By 9.26.11
Once upon a time, the comedy duo of Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong (some refer to them as Cheech and Chong) were as closely associated with marijuana as rolling papers and bongs. But oh how times have changed and priorities have shifted from getting high on pot brownies to getting high amounts of fiber from brownies. [More]
3 New Victims Of The Grocery Shrink Ray: Cookie Crisp, Oreos, And Finish Detergent
By 9.8.10
What do Cookie Crisp cereal, Double Stuf Oreos, and Finish dish detergent have in common? None of them are particularly good for you if you eat them, even if the first two are delicious in moderation. Yet all three were recently hit by the Grocery Shrink Ray, making each Finish tablet a tiny bit smaller, reducing the amount of cereal in the box by more than 20%, and giving consumers four fewer Double Stuf Oreos in a package. When will the indignities end? [More]
General Mills Sues So You Don't Confuse Pillsbury Doughboy With "My Dough Girl" Bakery
By 8.7.10
Great news, easily confused consumers! General Mills has forced the local Utah bakery “My Dough Girl” to change its name so you won’t confuse their hand-crafted specialty cookies with the Pillsbury Doughboy. The company sent the two-year-old local bakery a cease and desist letter complete with a gag order explaining that the bakery could “tarnish the company’s reputation.” [More]
