Cereal boxes are an important cultural expression. Canadian artist Gary Michael Dault is building on their significance by painting "1-minute paintings" on cereal boxes, but depicting landscapes. His work is currently being shown in a Halifax art gallery.
Read the article in The Chronicle Herald.
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art
The results from our latest Breakfast Bowl poll are in. My last question was: "When do you commonly eat cereal?"
Here are the results:
Breakfast - 72%
Lunch - 23%
Dinner - 33%
Snack - 58%
(more than one reponse was permitted)
My take on the above results: No real surprises, except I would have expected breakfast to have been a little higher and lunch lower. Nevertheless, cereal is truly a versatile food in our culture.
Here's the question for this week:
Now it's time for our next question. With all the controversial of marketing unhealthy cereals targeted at children, "Should cereal companies be restricted in marketing to children?"
LINK TO POLL
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polls
Here are some noteworthy posts regarding cereal from the past few weeks:
The World, The Flesh and The Devil ponders dating from the perspective of a bowl of Lucky Charms
Full Flavour Behaviour! rants on the nutrition marketing on British Cheerios boxes
Cereal blogger shares the reason Rice Krispies snap, crackle and pop
You ain't my friend, Palooka proposes "Unlucky" Charms
Emerald City writes a treatise on Crunch and Chocula
Talk Talk Talk Talk Talk Myself to Death reviews the new Special K Chocolatey Delight
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blogs
Innovation is essential for keeping a brand fresh and growing. According to The Retroist, Post has recently released Bamm-Bamm Berry Pebbles, a new variety of the Pebbles line. Fruity Pebbles and Cocoa Pebbles have never been favorites of mine, but you can't fault Post for tapping into Flintstones nostalgia with this entire line.
Just plain fun.
Kellogg is on to something. Last week I reported on the Barbie Fairytopia cereal hitting markets. Now I've discovered Hot Wheels, a new cereal obviously targeted to boys. As you can see from the photo, there are at least three design versions of the box. The back features cut-out collector cards.
There are several interesting aspects to these new cereals:
1. Kellogg is recognizing the time-tested value that cereal marketing is done best when it highlights pop culture.
2. Kellogg has partnered with Mattel on these new cereals. A good partnership, and certainly a good replacement for its loss of Disney.
3. Hot Wheels and Barbie are resurrections of previous cereals from 2 decades ago. Hopefully other cereals from the past will find new life for a new generation!
Although I haven't seen it yet and it is not yet promoted on the Kellogg website, indications from ebay auctions and other bloggers is that there is a new Barbie Fairytopia cereal hitting the market. It's been many years (30?) since Ralston's Barbie cereal, so it's fun to see this new modern version introduced.
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Kellogg
Cereal box collecting is a growing hobby for those fascinated with the expressions of pop culture in these marketing containers. I am an avid collector myself, but it's always interesting to read of the passion of serious collectors of cereal boxes. The Roanoke Times recently ran a story that included the story of Bob Konrad, a Michigan collector with over 2000 boxes in his collection.
What's scary is that I can identify with Bob's obsession.
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collecting
