Cereal at the Movies

One of the reasons for my personal fascination with cereal is its close link with pop culture. For decades cereal companies have recognized the emotional connection they could generate by giving bleary eyed consumers some fun at breakfast with cereals and boxes linked with sports figures, cartoons, movies, and more!

Movie-themed cereals, in particular, are not new. They have been a breakfast staple for years. Of course, movie-promotions on existing cereals have been quite common, but things get really exciting when cereal manufacturers go all out in their licensing agreements to create cereals with fun shapes and beautifully crafted boxes. Who can forget a classic like Jurassic Park cereal? And over the years, we have seen others, ranging from Indiana Jones to High School Musical.

In the last six months we have witnessed a resurgence in movie-themed boxes. Perhaps cereal companies, desperate to turn around declining sales, are reaching back to marketing formulas that have worked in the past to generate some new breakfast enthusiasm Here's a brief recap of some of the cereals we have spotted:

Kellogg's Frozen - Following on the heels of this wildly popular Disney movie, Kellogg introduced a Frozen cereal (not in the freezer section!) featuring a gorgeous box with both major panels with a different design. A sneaky way to get people to buy two, not realizing that one box has both images!

General Mills' Star Wars - With newly anticipated Star Wars movies coming, new themed cereals are in order, as they have in the past, going back to the original 3-CPO in 1984. This year General Mills gets the rights, with two characters to choose from.

Kellogg's Avengers - The successful Marvel Avengers movie was supported not only by an dedicated new cereal, but Kellogg also plastered characters on Corn Flakes (utilizing the two-sided trick again) and Krave!

General Mills' Minions - On the fun side General Mills recently launched a banana berry cereal featuring the Minions of the Despicable Me franchise. The cereal itself has Minion designs imprinted on them.











All in all, good cereal fun. The way many of us remember breakfast!