Thursday, October 19, 2006

No One Will Eat The Cereal But…


There may be more unopened boxes of Wheaties cereal in homes across America than any other cereal in history. Part of the reason is because Wheaties may be one of the nastiest cereals of all time but the main cause for the unopened boxes is that people buy boxes of the cereal, despite its nastiness, as collector’s items.

Like Beanie Babies people buy boxes of Wheaties for what’s on the outside not the inside. Because of s genius marketing plan by General Mills sports fans have been buying selling boxes of “The Breakfast of Champions” for over 70 years.


Wheaties began its association with athletes in 1933 and people have become so fascinated by the cereal boxes that they sell and trade them like baseball cards. Currently there are 847 auctions on Ebay for Wheaties. Earlier this season Wheaties honored the football traditions of Georgia, Michigan and Notre Dame with limited edition cereal boxes.


Now Wheaties will, for the first time ever, honor a college football rivalry. You would think maybe it would be Army/Navy, USC/Notre Dame, Florida Georgia or maybe even OU/Texas. Nope, Wheaties is marketing the Texas A&M/Texas game, a rivalry that at best would be number 10 in the Top 10 college football rivalries.

It may be a bad rivalry but it’s another genius marketing ploy by targeting two of the largest alumni bases in the country guaranteeing plenty of buyers out there for these limited edition boxes. If you missed your chance to snag one there’s always Ebay. You can get one to go with your Touchdown Tiger Beanie Baby!