For
all those in the Western world, so much of eating is done routinely: cereal for
breakfast, a sandwich for lunch, a protein and vegetable for dinner. Sometimes,
the act of eating is so second nature that the guidelines that dictate how and
when we eat are invisible. The food guidelines
such as eating a steak for dinner but not for breakfast, or eating lunch in the
middle of the day are inbred strongly into many American today.
When
it comes to the morning meal of breakfast, it is said to be the most important
meal of the day. This slogan came about due to a 1944 marketing campaign
launched by General Foods ( the manufacturer of Grape Nuts) to sell more
cereal.
During
the campaign, which marketers named “Eat a Good Breakfast; Do a Better Job,”
grocery stores handed out pamphlets that promoted the importance of breakfast
while radio advertisements announced that “Nutrition experts say breakfast is
the most important meal of the day.” Ads like these were key to the rise of
cereal, a product launched by men like John Harvey Kellogg, a deeply religious
doctor who believed that cereal would both improve Americans’ health
Before
cereal, in mid-1800s America, breakfast was not all that different from other
meals. Middle- and upper-class Americans ate
eggs, pastries, and pancakes, but also oysters, boiled chickens, and
beefsteaks. The rise of cereal established breakfast as a meal with distinct
foods and created the model of processed, ready-to-eat breakfast that still
largely reigns.
Historians
tend to agree that breakfast became a daily, first-thing-in-the-morning
institution once workers moved to cities and had set schedules. In Europe, this
first began in the 1600s, and breakfast achieved
importance during the Industrial Revolution. By this
time, there was already a tradition of certain foods like bread, ale, cheese,
porridges, or leftovers being cooked or eaten in the morning.
Where
breakfast is concerned, a cereal that’s been around for quite awhile is
Wheaties. There is so much to know about this cereal that you may be unaware
of. Here are some of the important facts in the timeline of Wheaties:
1921 A health clinician in
Minneapolis, MN, was mixing bran gruel for his patients and accidentally
spilled some of the goop on a hot stove. It turned into a crispy flake, and he
realized people might be more
into that than bran gruel.
1926.
The first jingle for a cereal was sung for Wheaties on Christmas Eve. The live
commercial aired on WCCO in Minneapolis, MN. The lyrics were: Have you tried
Wheaties? They're the whole wheat with all of the bran.
Won't you try Wheaties? For wheat is the best food of man.
Won't you try Wheaties? For wheat is the best food of man.
1930’s Since Wheaties was so dominant on the sports radio scene, General
Mills decided to host a broadcasters' contest for the stations it sponsored.
The prize was an all-expenses-paid trip to Hollywood. At WHO radio in Des Moines, IA, Ronald
"Dutch" Reagan won the trip.
1930's The
famous slogan "Breakfast of Champions" was first used to promote
Wheaties Cereal. The slogan debuted on a billboard for a minor league baseball
team in Minneapolis, MN.
1931 Jane Bausman of the Washburn Crosby Company suggested
Wheaties in a naming contest.
1933 Wheaties
was the first cereal to use radio soap operas to sell cereal to children. The
same advertising man who arranged for Ovaltine drink mix to be sold on the
Little Orphan Annie radio show hooked Wheaties up with it's radio character -
Skippy.
1934 Mary Elinor Smith appeared on the Wheaties box. Smith first made
waves in 1928 when she became the youngest pilot to receive her license at the age of 16. That same year, she flew a Waco
10 plane under all four of New York City's East River suspension bridges on a
dare. She started setting flying records, but eventually retired to raise a
family. She later returned to flying with NASA all the way up until 2001, when
she was in her eighties.
1934 Though Bob Richards was the first athlete featured on
the front of the Wheaties box,
Yankees hero Lou Gehrig was the first sports pro to grace the packaging.
1939
Wheaties became the first cereal to ever be advertised on television. The ad
took place during the very first televised baseball game (The Cincinnati Reds
vs The Brooklyn Dodgers). It was delivered by announcer Red Barber who was
shown eating a bowl of Wheaties between innings
1984 Female gymnast Mary Lou Retton appears on a Wheaties box.(Second
female to be on a Wheaties box).
Undated
Basketball
Player, Michael Jordan has starred on the cereal box the most times, eighteen. Golfer, Tiger
Woods, maintains second place with 14 boxes to his credit.
Even Wheaties is
susceptible to weird off-shoots, the brand only tried four:. Honey Frosted
Wheaties and Crispy Wheaties 'n Raisins each lasted seven years, Wheaties
Energy Crunch made it three, and Wheaties Fuel started quietly disappearing
after just two.
To celebrate 75 years on
grocery shelves, Wheaties decided to bring back a bunch of classic cereal
boxes. The company called on fans/cardboard box hoarders to vote for their
favorite Wheaties champs of all time. The top 10 athletes would get a special
75th anniversary reissue. Lou Gehrig, Michael Jordan, Babe Ruth, Tiger Woods,
Mary Lou Retton, John Elway, Cal Ripken Jr., Jackie Robinson, Walter Payton,
and the 1980 US men's Olympic hockey team made the cut.
“That's always seemed so ridiculous to me,
that people want to be around someone because they're pretty. It's like picking
your breakfast cereals based on color instead of taste.”
(John
Green)[i]
[i] Sources used:
·
“10 Things You
Didn’t Know about Wheaties” by Kristin Hunt
·
“A Brief History” by Wheaties
·
“Wheaties” by Mr. Breakfast
·
“Why Cereal Has Such Aggressive Marketing” by Gary Cameron
·
“Why Do We Eat Cereal For Breakfast? And Other Questions About
American Meals Answered” by Abigail Carroll
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