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Frosted Mini Dramas

April 23, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Feed your kids Kellogg’s Frosted Mini-Wheats and the little tigers will pay better attention at school.
That particular claim by the Grand Rapids, Mich. cereal brand got the attention of regulators at the Federal Trade Commission, who likely have children themselves. Kellogg’s national TV ads assert that attentiveness improved nearly 20 percent in children who ate the cereal, compared with those who skipped breakfast. The FTC said sorry, that’s false.
According to L.A. Times, Kellogg didn’t admit wrongdoing in settling the FTC’s complaint.
“Kellogg Co. has a long history of responsible advertising. We stand behind the validity of our clinical study yet have adjusted our communication to incorporate FTC’s guidance,” the company said in a statement that doesn’t seem to jive with the messages being delivered right now at fmw.kelloggcompany.com.
In the animated sequence that serves as an intro to the site, a Frosted Mini Wheat cartoon character says three times that he wants to help keep kids “full and focused.”

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Filed Under: Advertising Law
About David Burn

I wrote my first ad for a local political candidate when I was 17. She went on to win her race, and I felt the power of persuasive copy for the first time. Starting in Portland in 1995, I worked my way across the country as a copywriter and eventually became a content director making media products for big packaged goods brands. I returned to Oregon in 2008, and now I focus on building brands for companies that matter, including this one.