The cover of the Wheaties Box affects who buys it
The Wheaties cereal box has been around since 1924. It has dazzled the eyes of children and served as an icon for the rest of the world. People don’t buy it just for the corn flakey cereal but partly because of all the famous athletes that are posted on its cover. They buy it because they see these amazingly fit and athletic people all showing up on the front of this little cereal box, so they figure something must be good about it. Consumers see these genetic specimens who represent greatness, so sub-consciously people probably see it as a cereal only for people that are in a higher class than everyone else.
This box has become a National icon in the United States today. Almost everyone American knows the name and they also are well aware of who goes on the cover of the actual box. Mostly professional athletes are the ones to grace its cover but some famous people and even some fictional people have found their way onto these boxes that stack the shelves of local food marts.
The actual cereal was created accidentally when a wheat bran mixture was spilt onto a hot oven by a Minnesota clinician who worked for a company that later became known as “General Mills”. The name for this new invention was put up to a contest at the companies factory, the winner was the export managers wife, Jane Bausman, giving it the name Wheaties (Ament p. 4).
Wheaties and Sports advertising
1) Entered the sporting arena in 1933
2) General Mills saw sports as another way to advertise on a larger scale
(a) First started with sponsoring baseball broadcasts then led to putting actual athletes on the cover of the box (General Mills p. 7)
(b) The first advertising billboard was put up in Nicollet Park in Minneapolis, Minnesota on the wall of a minor league baseball team (Ament p. 2)
(c) When put to the task of creating a slogan to put on the billboard, Knox Reeves of a local advertising company came up with “Wheaties – The Breakfast of Champions”
(Ament p. 3)
(d) Some of the most famous profession baseball players that were known to endorse Wheaties include “Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Jackie Robinson, Bob Feller, Hank Greenberg, Stan Musial,Ted Williams,Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle and Johnny Bench” (General Mills p. 10)
3) Due to a shortage of money and the increasing costs of advertising, in the 1940s it was decided to move away from sports and more into commercials on television and radio.
(a) Commercials as well as the box itself were more focused on a target audience consisting of children
(b) This strategy led to a dramatic increase in amount of children eating Wheaties but in the end it turned out to be a horrible idea as the larger group of adult consumers did not want to buy a cereal with a child-like appeal (General Mills p. 15)
(c) This proves that whatever gets depicted on the cover of the box affects the actual sales of the box, not only who buys it
4) Wheaties finally returned to the sports after suffering a substantial decrease in sales.
(a) Had a strong return when they started to sponsor athletic events’ pre and post
game shows via television and radio (General Mills p. 18)
(b) Also focused on a health-based and athletic fitness campaign to promote good
habits (General Mills p. 18)
(c) Sales returned to their norm in relation to the adult consumers once they switched back to the more “grown up” box theme
5) The Many faces of the Wheaties box
(a) The first “real” person to ever appear on the Wheaties box was baseball’s Lou Gehrig, however the first person to appear on the “cover” of the box was Pole-vaulter, Bob Richards (World p. 4)
(b) Technically the first person to appear on the box was a fictional character named Jack Armstrong (World p. 2)
All of America could recognize the Wheaties box. However, depending on what is on the cover, will determine on whether or not they will buy it. The visuals of the box itself will make someone buy a cereal. The Wheaties box is definitely considered a text. It displays a message without words other then the Title on the box. This message can sub-consciously make someone buy the cereal or make them keep on walking through the grocery store. The perfect example of this occurred when General Mills decided to take a different approach on their advertising. Their sales to adults dropped drastically when they targeted children as their audience. The visual representation of the Wheaties box is what makes it a text.
