Nothing makes my blood boil more than food companies who market their food as being healthier than it really is. This is why I wanted to cry myself to sleep when I saw the new ad campaign developed to promote General Mills Multi Grain Cheerios.
This product does not look good naked and its marketing doesn’t either! A recent ad campaign launched by General Mills is aimed to pull at the heart strings of women who hate dieting, have struggled to lose weight in the past and don’t want our next generation of children to ever know the world of dieting. Throughout the ad it shows images of young girls with text that says things like “she will never stress over yo-yoing”. Then at the end it closes by saying “because she will never diet”.
General Mills would love it if you as a consumer associated this Multi Grain Cheerios product with a healthy breakfast solution. A breakfast that you can be proud to feed your kids because eating it is so healthy that our family will not have to worry about their weight.
The irony in this is that consuming excess sugar is one of the biggest (if not THE BIGGEST) culprits causing the obesity epidemic in North America today. And surprise, surprise, the third ingredient in Multi Grain Cheerios is refined sugar. So General Mills is trying to convince us that we should eat a balanced lifestyle and feed out kids Multi Grain Cheerios to help them do that, yet consuming sugary cereals is one of the major reasons we have such high rates of childhood obesity in the first place.
This is a serious case of Health Washing. General Mills you should be ashamed of yourself!!
According to the vice-president of marketing at General Mills the objective is that this brand will help foster a “movement” that believes “healthy, balanced living is a much more effective way to manage one’s weight and health than the yo-yo of deprivation dieting.”
First of all, I have to say… I completely agree with this mission. I 100% believe that living a healthy, balanced life that results in the health you want is a way better way to manage our weight.
However, as I briefly mentioned above, sugar is a leading cause of obesity in North America. We have such a massive problem with sugar intake that the World Health Organization just this year suggested we reduce our sugar intake to 5% of our daily intake which for an adult results in about 25g or 6 teaspoons and it could be as low as ½ of that for kids.
It is also important to note that one of the major causes of childhood obesity is sugary processed foods and especially cereal. According to the USDA, 73% of children eat sugary cereal for 1 or more breakfasts per week.
Multi Grain Cheerios cereal is one of the many cereal products produced by General Mills – one of the biggest processed food producers in the world. Every single one of their cereal products contains processed, refined sugar.
In the Multi Grain Cheerios cereal not only is sugar the third ingredient, but there is actually more sugar in the product than some of the grains they so proudly go on and on about. These Multi Grain Cheerios contain 6g of sugar per cup while products like Honey Nut Cheerios have 12g (same as count choc-ula), and there are 13.3g per cup in Apple Cinnamon Cheerios (same as lucky charms).
So let’s look at the big picture here. Children who are consuming sugary cereals like the ones made by General Mills are more likely to have obesity problems. This often leads to dieting. To avoid obesity and dieting we should eat a healthy diet that contains less than 5% sugar according to the World Health Organization. Yet, consuming any of the General Mills products is in direct contrast to this since they all contain high amounts of refined sugar. And in many cases people are consuming much more than 1 cup of cereal and could be getting more than an entire days worth of sugar just in their morning bowl of cereal.
This commercial put out by General Mills to promote their Multi Grain Cheerios cereal is nothing more than health washing in my opinion. They want to convince you they care about you and your kids health yet the product they are selling clearly illustrates that profits are more important to them than anything else.
What can you do as a consumer?
#VoteWithYourFork and stop buying these refined sugar filled cereals – the type of cereal that leads to obesity instead of fighting it. If you are looking for a healthy alternative try oatmeal with plain yogurt and fresh berries or a whole foods smoothie.
As I mentioned above I am completely on board with the mission to raise a generation of kids that never have to know about dieting. General Mills wants you to use the hashtag #GenerationHealthy to promote this mission. Let’s help them do that! Please share this message on facebook and twitter.
SHARE THIS MESSAGE: I care about my health and therefore I don’t eat sugary cereal. #GenerationHealthy #VoteWithYourFork
Thanks for reading and for being a part of this journey! Together we can make a world where everyone can be healthy and feel fabulous.
I would love to hear from you. Leave me a comment below letting me know what you choose to eat for breakfast and what you think of General Mills marketing practices.
