No More Snap, Crackle and Pop on Saturday Mornings
Ah, the glory of "Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs." That, of course, was the name of the incredibly sugary cereal that Calvin would eat with Hobbes on Saturday mornings while watching cartoons on the boob tube. Calvin described the cereal as "tasty, lip-smacking, crunchy-on-the-outside, chewy-on-the-inside, and they don't have a single natural ingredient or essential vitamin to get in the way of that rich, fudgy taste."
But the days of advertising the Sugar Bombs' real-life counterparts on Saturday mornings seem to be coming to an end.
Kellogg Co. announced last week that it will cut the sugar, fat and sodium content of food it markets to children under 12: no more than 200 calories per serving, no trans fat and no more than 2 grams of saturated fat, along with limits on sugar, according to WebMD. Kellogg will market only the brands that meet the nutritional criteria. A third of the cereals it markets to children in the U.S. fall outside the standards, Kellogg says.
The announcement, part of the Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative to fight childhood obesity, is the first really big shot fired in a race by companies like McDonald's and Hershey's to "beat a July 18 deadline to announce responsible-marketing pledges of their own at a government kids'-obesity forum," Advertising Age reports. But Elizabeth Whelan writes in the New York Post that Kellogg has sold out and that even presweetened cereal can be a good source of nutrition for kids.
Kellogg's new criteria produce some weird results. Rice Krispies, for instance, miss the cut because of sodium levels (Salt in breakfast cereal? Gross), but Frosted Flakes are OK. I can see that this will take a while for parents to figure out.
12:19 PM ET | 06-18-2007 | permalink
