Michael Phelps Kellogg's Frosted Flakes Backlash

by Michelle da Silva  |  August 21st, 2008
Michael Phelps
Frosted Flakes... breakfast of champions? (Courtesy of M@arcopako at Flickr.com)

Swimmer and eight-time Beijing Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps is starting to receive a lot of criticism and backlash for his choice to whore himself out on a box of Kellogg's Frosted Flakes than the usual Wheaties. While Phelps will also be appearing on boxes of Kellogg's Corn Flakes come September, critics are wondering about the consequences of the athlete promoting a sugary cereal, reports celebrity blogger Perez Hilton.

"I would not consider Frosted Flakes the food of an Olympian," Rebecca Solomon, a nutritionist at Mount Sinai Medical Center, told the Daily News. "I would rather see him promoting Fiber One. I would rather see him promoting oatmeal. I would even rather see him promoting Cheerios."

According to the Daily Mail, Frosted Flakes cereal has three times the amount of sugar as Wheaties and one-third of the fiber. Gasp!

Apparently experts say, "For a guy like Michael Phelps who isn't worried about obesity because he's burning thousands of calories as an athlete… eating Corn Flakes and Frosted Flakes every so often is not an issue."

 
 
 

 

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  1. Posted By elo
    August 25th, 2008 at 10:57 am

    Obesity obviously isn't Phelps responsibility..and it's overreacting to say that by sponsoring a sugary cereal, he will necessarily be contributing to the epidemic.

    But – with all the sponsorship offers Phelps receives, it does seem that it would make more sense for his own personal brand to sponsor a healthier cereal–this could increase/help conserve the value and integrity of his own brand. The very fact that some people Are upset about his sponsoring of a sugary cereal suggests that his brand could be hurt by this endorsement–whether or not that's fair. (And will the $ he earns from Kellogg's/McDonald's offset the losses in future potential earnings, because of the possible damage to his personal brand? ….impossible to calculate.)

    Dr. Tantillo ('the marketing doctor') has a
    branding blog and did a recent post on the Michael Phelps brand, discussing the challenges Phelps will have in leveraging his brand for promotions (lack in popularity of swimming as a sport in the U.S., the fact that his brand is closely tied to the Olympics, which is episodic..) and also pointing out ways Phelps will be able to succeed despite these challenges. The promotional ideas he suggests also have a more intuitive tie to Phelps himself.

    Full post