Marketers Beware: Deceptive Practices Erode trust
The front panel declares, “Frosted Mini-Wheats® cereal clinically shown to improve kids’ attentiveness by nearly 20%.” So I, being a “responsible father”, threw it into my cart, took it home and fed it to my kids. They were thrilled to see any cereal with frosting on it, and dove in with an animal-like vigor that, I admit, made me proud. Then I saw the back panel.
The fine print reads, “Based upon independent clinical research, kids who ate Kellogg’s® Frosted Mini-Wheats® cereal for breakfast had up to 18% better attentiveness three hours after breakfast than kids who ate no breakfast. For more information, visit www.frostedminiwheats.com.”
Um, hello? Than kids who didn’t eat anything but water.
My response as a parent:
If the makers of America’s breakfast cereal are telling bold-faced lies on television and on the front of the package designs, then I am serving steel cut rolled oats every morning.
My response as a brand strategist:
The marketing people responsible for this campaign are suffering from short-termer disease. Kellogg’s needs to realize that Americans are fed up with lies and demand authenticity from the brands we allow into our lives.
The real shame: FMW is rated as one of the healthiest cold cereals on the market, containing less fat, sugar and salt (and more fiber and protein) than other so called healthy cereals. So why lie? The only answer I can come up with (having chatted with one of the masterminds behind this campaign) is that Kellogg’s and their agency think parents are stupid.