Snack Girl and the President of Cereal
May 26, 2015 20 Comments
Here I am with General Mills President of Cereal, Jim Murphy, and his sidekick a honey bee.
Isn’t his green hat super cute? I hear he wears it every day. Wait a minute! That isn’t the right photo from my trip. Here is the real one:
My smile is a wee bit tense.
General Mills cereal is in 90% of households in the USA. Isn’t that mind blowing?
I haven’t met many top executives at 33 billion dollar companies. My set usually hangs out at the local park in their sneakers versus inside of a glassed-in corporate headquarters. I wasn’t sure how it was going to go and I felt like a complete dork asking for a photo BUT I needed proof for all of you.
Michelle Obama also met with General Mills when she started her Let’s Move initiative. I mention her meeting because everything you asked for in the comments section of this post What Would You Advise the President of Cereal? has been requested by public health advocates for years.
I decided to choose my battle and talk about added sugar. General Mills is proud of Cheerios – a whole grain, no added sugar option – and they should be. It is one of the best choices in the cereal aisle but it isn’t nearly as attractive to children as Lucky Charms (also General Mills).
I asked Mr. Murphy for a low sugar, whole grain option that was appealing to kids. He pointed at Kix and said, “We already have one.”
I reached for the box and countered, “This isn’t appealing to kids. This cereal looks like dog kibble.”
Way to go, Snack Girl! Insult a cereal that brings in millions of dollars of revenue every year! You can see why I don’t get to talk to executives very often. No, I couldn’t say, “These aren’t visually appealing.” I had to say, “DOG KIBBLE”.
Ahhh well.
The good news is that General Mills has been quietly bringing down the added sugar in the sugary cereals. Lucky Charms has gone from 14 grams of sugar per serving 6 years ago to 10 grams of sugar per serving today.
The bad news is that they still market sugar filled cereals to kids and haven’t created a product that has a low amount of added sugar with the appeal of a Cocoa Puffs.
I think they haven’t tried hard enough. They have a 90% penetration (yes, that is the word they use) of American households. Can’t they create something that will fly off the shelves? I mean the LEADERS in cereal are sitting there in Minneapolis. I believe they should lead and the market will follow.
On a lighter note, I did get to eat a lot of cereal (perhaps a little too much). Here is a photo of a fraction of the containers of cereal that were in every room I spent time in:
I tried a bunch of them and I was almost out the door to the airport when I spotted Cheerios + Ancient Grains (it came out in January 2015). This version of Cheerios contains small amounts of quinoa, Kamut wheat and spelt along with the traditional oats. Get this – only 5 grams of sugar per serving (3/4 cup).
When I got home, I bought a box and I like it. Is it appealing to kids? The box isn’t – but my kids like the cereal and it isn’t too sweet and is whole grain. For me, it is a much better choice than Honey Nut Cheerios at 9 grams of sugar per serving.
General Mills paid my travel expenses to visit their corporate headquarters. The opinions and text above are all mine (and were not sponsored by General Mills).
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