Assignment 1-3 Article Analysis: Tricksters and the Marketing of Breakfast Cereals

Article Analysis: Tricksters and the Marketing of Breakfast Cereals

The article that I chose to write about is “Tricksters and the Marketing of Breakfast Cereals”, written by Thomas Green. In this article, Green delves into the idea that major food distributors use the unique “trickster” marketing technique in order to pander to children and sometimes their parents. He asks the question of why this seems to almost be the exclusive technique used in the marketing of breakfast cereals and wonders if these techniques could have originated from sort of underlying religious theme of morality and purity from the nineteenth century. Prepared breakfast foods originated in the late nineteenth century at which time many Americans’ diets consisted of mainly large quantities of meat, with little consumption of fruit, vegetables, or fiber. Non-meat foods in this period were considered of inferior nutritional value. The mass consumption of meat often led to a vast array of digestive complaints.
Green writes about Sylvester Graham, a man who was one of the most important figures in the history of breakfast cereal and whose legacy still resonates today with “Graham” crackers. He was emphatic with the idea that dietary reform would lead to moral purity and goodness. He argued that eating raw fruits and vegetables combined with a limited meat and water intake, along with a strong emphasis on cereal products made with whole grains, would provide an instant cure of the world’s social and digestive problems. He published numerous pamphlets that influenced some of the major businessmen of that time, including, but not limited to, J.H. Kellogg, who credited Graham with being instrumental in the health-food movement. Kellogg, in 1895, along with help from his brother and a lawyer, invented the first ready to eat right out of the box cereal, “Granose.” C.W. Post continued with the association between breakfast foods and moral goodness. Post introduced the cereal brands, Grapenuts and Post Toasties, which he marketed side-by-side and promoted as the building blocks of a complete, healthy lifestyle. Post included a pamphlet within every box of Grapenuts, called, “The Road to Wellville”, which gave birth to an entirely new culture of eating habits and changed the way that Americans would eat forever.
This movement of associating the words, “sacred” and “healthy” is still evident in today’s society, as many people seem to accept without question that breakfast foods are somehow healthier for you than other foods that are eaten throughout the rest of the day. The entire notion of breakfast food advertising in the nineteenth century seemed to center around deep-seated mythic images of health and happiness.
Starting in the last half of the twentieth century, advertisers started using cartoon characters or tricksters to market their cereal brands. There seem to be different circumstances that encompass these marketing techniques. The first being that of overwhelming desire and enthusiasm to obtain the unattainable, such as; the Trix Rabbit, he seems to be willing to do anything to score a bowl of Trix, however, his attempts always seem to fall by the wayside because Trix are not for rabbits, “Trix are for kids”. Another example that Green writes about is to be able to turn the trick on the trickster, such as; the Lucky Charms leprechaun, who uses his magical abilities to protect his marshmallows and cereal from the children that are chasing after it. Inevitably, something always goes awry with his scheme(s) and the cereal falls into the waiting hands of the children. Life and Kix cereal break the taboo that certain “healthy” cereals are only for adults. In the Life commercials, they would show some kids sitting around a table not wanting to eat their parent’s cereal, so they made a kid named Mikey eat it, (“Hey Mikey, he likes it!), this seemingly places and end to the belief that so-called healthy cereals were only made for adults. The final example is the hero trickster, Tony the Tiger is one of these tricksters. These characters provide the cereal as a gift to children rather than trying to steal it from them with some kooky scheme. In the Frosted Flakes advertisements there were always children who did not fit in due to a lack of popularity or athleticism. Once Tony the Tiger showed up on the scene and provided a bowl of cereal, the kids seem to pull a 180 degree turn around and are now able to accomplish what previously seemed impossible.
Finally, breakfast cereals market to the youth of the world by offering prizes inside of their boxes of cereal. We can all probably remember when we were kids, not really caring if we liked the cereal or not, we would simply pick out the cereal that had the best prize inside.
Thomas Green wrote a very interesting and intriguing article here, which was very in-depth and provided a plethora of information and quite a few thought provoking ideas. I am pretty sure that there will not be anyone that reads this article that has ever contemplated anything about breakfast cereals and their variety of advertising campaigns.
I really do not believe that there is any difference between breakfast cereal marketing techniques and the techniques that fast-food chains, department stores, or toy stores implement. They are all simply trying to find an edge in a constantly changing consumer market. They are trying to get us to buy their products and since we live in such of a competitive marketing society, we better get used to trying to be persuaded or tricked.


References
Green, T. (2007, February). Tricksters and the marketing of breakfast cereals.
The Journal of Popular Culture, 40, 49-68