Silly Rabbit....

I logged onto Yahoo this morning and what headline do I see but, “Cereal Makers Add Nutrition, Lose ‘Toons”. I was shocked and appalled to read the article. The article outlined Kellogg’s new agreement to raise the nutritional value of cereal and stop marketing it to children after threats of lawsuits from child advocacy groups. These advocacy groups are concerned that the Kellogg Corporation is contributing heavily to childhood obesity. I would like to point out to these adults that form the child advocacy groups that THEY are the ones contributing to childhood obesity, not cereal companies. Cereal companies are doing what they have always set out to do, make money. They don’t set out to make kids fat. The only way these children are obtaining this cereal which is supposedly making them fat is through parents. Parents are purchasing these cereal products voluntarily for there children. There are no children forcing adults to purchase cereal for them. If there are, then those parents have a whole other set of problems. Children are not choosing to buy these cereals, they are merely asking for the cereal. There is a little word they can use in order to stop the children from getting the cereal, it’s called “no”.

The agreement allows cereal companies to market to people 12 and older. As we all know once you hit 12 all your obesity problems go away. This agreement is ludicrous (the adjective, not the rapper). Michael Jacobson, director of the center for science in the public interest says of the agreement, "This commitment means that parents will find it a little easier to steer their children toward healthy food choices — especially if other food manufacturers and broadcasters follow Kellogg's lead." This agreement will make it “easier for parents to steer their children toward healthy food choices”? Who are the lazy ones? If parents have a hard time steering their children to healthy food, who’s fault is that? Certainly not the cereal company’s.

In addition to making cereal more nutritious Kellog is also forced to change its advertising campaigns. One of the most disturbing caveats to this agreement is that Kellogg must no longer use licensed characters in their advertising or on their boxes. At first I didn’t fully understand this. The way it was worded it sounded like Tony the Tiger was being fired. I soon came to learn that Tony still has his job; it is Shrek and Donald Duck who are out of luck. Kellogg is only allowed to use characters that they own. They may no longer use movie characters or anything else of that matter. They also may not uses licensed toys. Children can no longer expect a tiny Frisbee in their cereal, but can look forward to Kellogg’s frasbees. At the end of the article there is a note: “(This version corrects the spelling of Froot Loops)” Who in America doesn’t know how to spell Froot Loops?

Attention parents: you are making you children fat, stop blaming the cereal company. There is a little thing called “restraint” which you should employ when in the grocery store. Instead of buying the donuts that your child wants for breakfast, buy them fruit. Don’t blame Toucan Sam for your child’s obesity.