Hasta La Creative!

As Ad Age reported this week, General Mills has purchased a Super Bowl ad for the first time in 17 years with a spot for Cheerios that is expected to continue the brand’s emotional, family-themed messaging. That approach would be markedly different from the company’s celebrity-laden 1996 Super Bowl spot for Wheaties, which is the subject of this week’s Rewind.

The ad starred then-NFL players Steve Young and Deion Sanders, along with a cameo by “breakfast of champions” pitchman Michael Jordan, who had been plugging Wheaties for years, beginning with this 1988 ad:

According to a Chicago Tribune article in January 1996 that quoted “insiders,” General Mills developed “second thoughts” about airing the Super Bowl spot with Mr. Young and Mr. Sanders in the run-up to the game. Super Bowl ads cost a reported $1.1 million for 30 seconds that year (compared with the estimated $4 million for the 2014 game) but the Tribune story couldn’t say whether it was the cost or something else troubling General Mills.

Continue reading at AdAge.com