disney cereal
From England a shocking tale of good turned to the dark side: A watchdog group called Which? has determined that cartoon heroes are being used to sell unhealthy snacks to children:

Spidey was blasted for backing sugary Nesquik Chocolate Flavour Cereal, while Scooby-Doo Mini Pizza Breadsticks were found to be high in salt.

A Which? spokesman said: “The companies which own and use these characters need to review their policies.”

Marvel, who own Spider- Man, said they did not have “a specific policy” on using their characters in food marketing.

Scooby-Doo owners Warner Bros said their characters were used “in a responsible manner”.


Meanwhile, in the US, where kids are even tubbier than in the UK, several cartoon nets have

200708210304already vowed to be more mindful

Cartoon Network Friday joined the growing list of media companies joining the fight against childhood obesity.”Cartoon Network will limit the use of its original characters related to its company-owned original series targeted to children under the age of 12 to food and beverage products that meet specific nutritional criteria,” the network said. That came after Discovery Kids and Nickelodeon had made similar pledges


Bring back Count Chocula. That would make everything OK again.

8 COMMENTS

  1. Flip the TV channels about on any Saturday morning and the most hypnotic images actually come from the kid’s food commercials.

    Some of them are like virtual LSD trips in their surrealism. Beautiful and sure to convince any child that that sugar encrusted cereal or yogurt is the only thing they are going to want for – scream for.

    That Princess cereal box is so gorgeous. It is hard to imagine anything detrimental coming out of it. Too bad it’s not full of whole oats. It is no wonder that obesity and diabetes are on the rise among young people. ‘Multi grain’ in the cereal won’t cancel out all of the sugar and chemicals. That cereal is chock full of candy.

    Underoos – now that’s a pretty safe purchase, I’d say. So long as they don’t catch fire…

  2. Ah, for the good old days, when the cereal companies had their own cartoon shows! (cartoon historians will recall the FCC regulation which prohibited such advertising. Reagan deregulated this, thus I was able to turn my junior high brain to mush with daily doses of Transformers, He Man, and G I Joe.)
    The best cereal tie-in was the TMNT cereal. It flavored the milk with honey. And I recall a Pink Panther cereal from early childhood. And why wasn’t Boo Berry shown in the commercials? And do they still put toys in the boxes, like the baking soda submarine in Captain Crunch?

  3. Quote from the cold cereal aisle:

    “Yes, I know daddy draws those cartoon characters, and I know you love the sugar…but we don’t have dental insurance (or health insurance, for that matter). Sorry dear.”

  4. “And do they still put toys in the boxes, like the baking soda submarine in Captain Crunch?”

    It’s pretty rare these days. Most of the time it’s “Send in 5 box tops and $5 (s&h) to get your useless piece of crap! Hurry! While supplies last!”

    Well, I’m just glad these networks have finally wised up! Now I can avoid saying “No.” to my children when they ask for such frivolous things. Now if I can just get the toy commercials taken off the air, I’m set!

  5. I searched for ‘Obesity Photo’ at google and found this your post (‘Heroes become villains where snacks are involved’) in search results. Not very relevant result, but still interesting to read.

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