They're Magically Delicious!

http://www.generalmills.com/corporate/brands/brand.aspx?catID=69

Lucky Charms is a cereal that has a bad reputation for being sugary and unhealthy. But when looking at the ingredients and facts it is easy to see that that is a common misconception.

The cereal is made with whole grains and fortified with 12 vitamins and minerals. It is also a great source of calcium even before adding the milk!

All of the vitamins it’s fortified with besides two are 10% daily value or over. That is quite a percentage for one serving of a supposedly unhealthy cereal.

This will be beneficial in my papers because it shows that not only does General Mills care about portraying cereal as a fun and exciting breakfast, it sneaks in all of the good things parents like, such as whole grains and the vitamins, that kids on the other hand would not think are cool. This is a great way to make a product because everyone who is affected by it is happy. The kid thinks they are eating a magically delicious and entertaining cereal while the parents know they are getting the nutrients they need.

I remember when I was little I thought only the marshmallows would be the good part until I tasted what I considered the “boring” part of the cereal. I realized that I was shockingly wrong and everything about Lucky Charms was great! The cereal keeps their attention with different designs of marshmallows, sometimes with “treasure hunts” through the milk trying to find the marshmallows.

Lucky Charms is an extremely ethical cereal, produced by an ethical company, General Mills. They keep things interesting by introducing chocolate lucky charms or new marshmallows and they genuinely care about their customers well being and not just their taste buds.
I love General Mills and you should too! (sorta) lol

Think Fast. Have Power. Get Going. Choose Breakfast!

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2005_June_22/ai_n13825988/

This article has more of the logistics of what went into the Choose Breakfast campaign because that is what I am writing me WP4 over!

The General Mills Chief Marketing Officer Mark Addicks. "The new Choose Breakfast advertising campaign is unique in the industry because it is the first nonbranded advertising campaign of this scale. We'll reach more kids with Choose Breakfast than any other child effort we've done before. We have taken our insights on how to communicate health to kids and have developed advertising that will impact children in a very positive way."

Other quotes from children’s advertisers prove the fact that it was not only a good thing for them to do but also extremely respectable. Also the statistics pertaining to breakfast explain that one in four Americans do not eat breakfast which is a huge disappointment and the statistics are predicted to grow. Eating cereal for breakfast has also been proven to help both adults and children keep a healthy body weight which is extremely important because of recent weight issues in America.

Eric Lucas of General Mills stated, "It is low in fat and is nutrient-rich for the number of calories it has per serving. Importantly, if it's any General Mills Big G cereal, it also provides either a good or excellent source of whole grain." All of the cereals are enriched with important nutrients that help get breakfast eaters through the day and get the needed nutrition.
Not only do the advertisements talk about choosing breakfast, but they also promote being active and staying healthy on each cereal box and in every advertisement. This is another area that should not be overlooked with the increasing rate of obesity and it is a wonderful thing that General Mills is focusing on both.

This is another great source in supporting General Mills cause that fits perfectly with my WP4 paper. The facts are clear from several articles and many people all stating that they think General Mills is not in this for themselves, but to benefit Americans and their customers. This portrays them as extremely ethical which is definitely the light I would like to portray them in and they have made that extremely easy for me!

Go General Mills!

Will Cheerios still be called Cheerios in Europe?!

http://www.nytimes.com/1989/12/01/business/general-mills-nestle-plan-europe-push.html?scp=10&sq=general%20mills&st=cse

General Mills is always looking at the global community. They are interested in not only the affairs here in the US but also make plans to provide the same quality food all over the world! In 1989 they introduced plans to produce their cereals in Europe since the market was small but they thought it had potential to bring in new customers as well as a different style of breakfast in Europe.

Breakfast was the only meal considered at the time “unAmericanized” and General Mills wasn’t trying to Americanize them by doing this, they were trying to introduce new ideas and possibly healthier breakfasts than the normal bread with butter or nuttella. There is not a lot of focus on breakfast at all in Europe and I think a small push to help get them interested in what is considered the most important meal of the day, would be a push in the right direction.

When I went to Europe this last summer I actually remember seeing cereal at probably half of the hotels we stayed at. There was not a huge selection, but they were available and I know a lot of travelers appreciated that along with quite a few Europeans eating the cereal as well. I have no idea if it was General Mills cereal, since apparently Kellogg’s has held that market since 1922, but I do know that it was available and that was something I never would have expected.

This article is helpful because it shows how General Mills is always looking towards the future. Something they envisioned 20 years ago is now a reality that I can attest to. Most companies were probably not considering globalizing their products like they do today and I think have the foresight to recognize an opportunity that long ago says a lot. An ethical company would always be looking at the present along with the coming future and this is definitely a quality that my company exhibits.

Choose Breakfast!!

www.choosebreakfast.com

Choose Breakfast is another campaign started by General Mills that is full of advertisements telling kids to eat breakfast and the importance of not skipping it. The advertisements are kid friendly and never show General Mills brand or any of their products in the commercials.

Also the first page has a section to take a quiz about the importance of breakfast that is definitely directed at kids. It's very interactive and sort of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" style. The answers are very obvious and each comes with a little fact about why breakfast is so important after you receive the answer.

At the end of the quiz their is a section that is called "Take the Pledge". It is basically a little pledge that is supposed to be filled out and put on the fridge that says you will eat breakfast everyday because you know how important it is. This is supposed to be read with a parent so that it can be enforced and a sort of reminder to keep it going!

This initiative is another great example of how General Mills is positively effecting the lives of kids by making them think it's cool and important to eat breakfast. No other company would ever start this same type of advertisements without their brand name all over the commercials and ads. On the website for the product General Mills is only mentioned at the very bottom of the page in small letters under the legal and privacy sections which no one even reads.

Their point is not to advertise themselves and help them beat their competitors, if it was the approach would have been completely different. But instead they help support my case by showing how ethical and moral they really are.

General Mills love the Children!

http://www.boxtops4education.com/

This website is about General Mills' Box Top for Education incentive.
Box Top for education is basically ways for schools to earn funding by having their students buy General Mills cereal products and in turn when the box tops are redeemed, and a percentage of the money, normally 10 cents for every box top, will be given back!

The thing I love about General Mills is that they are always looking for ways to reach new consumers, but at the same time give back or help educate the world on important issues. Since people will already be buying cereal for their kids, why not help out the schools by giving them a fun and simple way for them to earn extra funding for whatever they choose?

Some other great things that have come from this program are that other companies have followed suit and gotten involved. There are now several websites that come from this page that donate a portion of your purchase to your school and have teamed up with Barnes and Noble to put a greater focus on reading and having more books in libraries. General Mills didn't care about getting their name out but instead helped find new ways to help the cause they started! To this day they have earned over $250 million for schools all over the U.S.

This website about one of GM's great incentive programs definitely helps my argument about how ethical they are because it shows what a giving company they are. Their plan is not one like coke rewards or other "buy and possibly win" propaganda games, but instead has a solid method of giving back with no trickery or possibility of losing.

On top of the box top incentive, they also have contests for schools to compete in to gain even more funding without the purchase of any General Mills products being necessary. This program is designed to recognize and reward outstanding schools in the U.S. and is another great way for them to send a positive message through their products.

I always collected box tops when I was in elementary school and had no idea that they came from any specific brand of product. After all of the research I have done on my company it is getting easier and easier for me to like them because every site is just more proof of how ethical and moral they really are!

Go Box Tops!