General Mills tries for gold

The Olympics and its wall-to-wall coverage are now over, but General Mills is wasting no time in capitalizing on the event and two of its premiere stars. Today they announced two new Wheaties boxes featuring high-profile gold medal winners Michael Phelps and Misty May-Treanor.

This is significant for several reasons. First, the timing is great. Second, it helps the flagging Wheaties brand. But, most significant, this is a big jump ahead of Kellogg who has Olympic sponsorship rights. General Mills can't actually take advantage of all the official Olympics branding, but with these two stars it really doesn't matter. This is big, and ultimately, could over-shadow whatever exposure Kellogg gained in recent weeks, but watch for a new Corn Flakes box coming soon featuring the popular U.S. women gymnastics team.

Let the games continue!