Hasta La Creative!

Are cereal mascots really drawn looking down, in a subtle attempt at appealing to children through eye contact? Cornell researchers say yes, which General Mills says is "absurd."

In an entertainingly blunt blog post on Friday, General Mills vp of global communications Tom Forsythe eviscerated Cornell's recent study, which found that cereal was placed lower on shelves to target children and also designed to have characters look down at kids.

"Really Cornell?" Forsythe writes. "I mean … we’ve never noticed—and we’re a cereal company."

Here's Cornell's summary of its findings:

In a study of 65 cereals in 10 different grocery stores, Cornell researchers found that cereals marketed to kids are placed half as high on supermarket shelves as adult cereals—the average height for children’s cereal boxes is 23 inches verses 48 inches for adult cereal. A second key finding from the same study is that the average angle of the gaze of cereal spokes-characters on cereal boxes marketed to kids is downward at a 9.6 degree angle whereas spokes-characters on adult cereal look almost straight ahead.

The research was illustrated with this graphic:

Calling the study "pseudoscience," Forsythe refutes the claims that cereals are physically and psychologically aimed at children, but most hilariously, he points out some bizarre choices by the infographic designer.

"Take one more look at the Cornell graphic," Forsythe writes. "Mr. T cereal disappeared, I think, in the early 1980s. That guy on the bottom shelf? It may be C3PO. Now that's cutting-edge research."

Via BuzzFeed.

What could be better than an Auto-Tune leprechaun singing about his magically delicious cereal? Nothing! This 15-second Lucky Charms ad, which mixes current commercial footage, vintage images and goofy-great vocal manipulation, will air during high-profile TV shows this week like the Billboard Music Awards and the season finales of American Idol and The Voice. Its inspiration came from major doses of hallucinogenic drugs and/or a St. Patrick's Day promotion for the General Mills brand that included a mashup music video that went viral with nearly 1 million views. There were many hot-shot creative hands on deck here (see the credits below), but all you really need to know is that the result is super groovy. Watch the full video for a trippy walk down memory lane.

CREDITS
—Ad
Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi
Production: Pat-Man Studios
Composer: Jeff Elmassian
—Video
YouTube's Machinima channel and Melodysheep, mashup maker

With the tagline “That Takes Grape Nuts,” Post Cereal has gone and targeted men in its latest campaign for the tooth-busting cereal. (It is interesting to note that the cereal contains neither grapes nor nuts, but is made of something much heartier: pebbles, bits of glass, and peach pits.) The campaign is based on fifty web “shows” playing on TheGuysManual.msn.com that depict scenes of men making mistakes and getting coached on how to get out of them. Tips include how to deal with beating your boss at golf, dealing with a co-worker/girlfriend’s success at work, and what to do when babysitting your boss’s kids. The advice could be seen as helpful, and somewhat funny, but it will never surpass the advice spewed by Jimmy and Adam on “The Man Show.” Grape Nuts, celebrating their 111th birthday as a mainstay of the Post brand, has lost market share year after year and now owns less than one percent. Post Cereal, owned by the likes of Phillip Morris and Kraft, landed at Ralcorp in 2008.

We need to bring it back to life in a relevant way,” says Kelley Peters, the “insights” director who charts Grape Nuts psychographics for Ralcorp’s $5 million resuscitation attempt. Her target: men 45 years-old and up. “Men aspire to it,” she says. “It’s strong and stern, the father figure of cereals.” Her marketing chief, Jennifer Marchant, points out: “It tends to break your teeth sometimes.”

If the campaign is successful, Grape Nuts will help to define a new breed of man…a man with grape-like nuts. Impressive. Now if they could only define a Grape Nut.

Jeff Louis: Strategic Media Planner, Project Manager, and New Business Coordinator. His passion is writing, contributing to BMA as well as freelancing. He’d love to hear from you, so leave a comment or follow the links: linkedin.com or twitter.com.