Cereal Offender

[Rob McCow]

Kellogs in the dock over coco-pops! Their latest ad campaign promised to be whiter-than-white, but now Kellogs are finding that it's even turning their milk chocolatey.

Parents have accused the cereal maker Kellogg's of hypocrisy for suggesting pupils snack on Coco Pops while publicly backing a Government campaign against child obesity.

The US manufacturer is advertising on bus stops with the slogan: "Ever thought of Coco Pops after school?", and running television adverts showing a pupil tucking in to a bowl accompanied by its famous cartoon monkey.

Parents complain the adverts urge children to fill up on the sugary cereal in the afternoon instead of something healthier. One person posted a message on the social networking site Twitter which read: "Coco Pops after school? Yeah that's a good idea ruin your kid's appetite ... Well done Kellogg's."

Another wrote: "'Ever thought of Coco Pops after school?' Ever heard of childhood obesity?" The user Doctorow said: "Kid-targeted candy advertising at its worst." Another parent added: "These advertisements are sited at bus stops close to schools. I thought the Government was trying to clamp down on these attempts to make children obese!"

The adverts appear to clash with the cereal company's support for the Department of Health's fat-reduction programme aimed at halting sharply rising rates of obesity.

Kellogg's is a "national partner" of Change4Life, which advises parents to "sugar-swap" by ditching a sugary pudding for a sugar-free jelly or yoghurt. Among its tips is: "Try replacing the unhealthy snacks with ones you don't mind them eating – fruit, oatcakes, breadsticks and frozen fruity ice-cubes."

Coco Pops contain 35 grams of sugar for every 100 grams, making it one of the more sugary options in the breakfast cereals market.

Christine Haigh of the Children's Food Campaign claimed that the cereal maker's advertising did not tally with its role as a partner for Change4Life. "It's outrageous that Kellogg's, which is a partner of Change4Life, is encouraging children to eat more of their sugary products," she said.

"One of the key messages of Change4Life is encouraging families to swap snacks with added sugar for low-sugar or sugar-free alternatives."

Kellogg's pointed out its average serving was 30 grams, not 100 grams. The firm said: "A bowl of Coco Pops is low in fat, contains vitamins and iron and, with milk, gives you only 175 calories a bowl. Coco Pops also has less than two teaspoons of sugar per serving – that's less than two slices of toast and jam and less sugar than a fruit yoghurt. That's why we, and many parents, think a bowl of Coco Pops with milk is a perfectly good choice of after-school snack."

According to the latest figures, 27 per cent of primary school children in England are overweight or obese. Obesity costs the UK £3.5bn a year. The Department of Health declined to criticise Kellogg's but said all Change4Life partners had to "sign up to terms of engagement".

Would you eat cereal after work or school? What are your favourite kinds of cereal? Do you think that Coco-Pops campaign is going to make kids fat? And is Coco the Monkey more annoying than Tony Tiger?

[SiHart]

Poor old Coco Pops.

When I was young, my Mum always used to give us a bowl of cereal as a snack during the day, and quite often after school. It's a good idea in theory, but I guess Coco Pops probably aren't the best cereal to be advertising it with. If they'd gone for Corn Flakes instead I doubt there would be any complaints.
Still as a snack goes, it's still probably better than most things a child would choose.

Si xx

[Llordllama]

Ever thought of crack after school?

Yeah I'm with Sim, cereals aren't that bad - better than a burger and chippy chips. Then again coco pops taste like floor scrapings in a chocolate factory so I never touch the vile objects. I mean, why is turning the milk brown a good thing?

[cullsoft]

Whenever I see those bus stop adverts, I do think about having coco pops - or at least a bowl of cereal - after school. It feels like the sort of thing done by uni students who are taking advantage of the fact that they can eat what they like, when they like, without worrying about what parents think. I'm sure I did it a few times when I was at uni, but that doesn't mean I look back on it with any pride (there are a lot of things I now know about properly cooking for yourself that I wish I know back then).

I also stop and think that perhaps there is the upside of the nutrients and such that a child could get out of a bowl of cereal, but then it feels like it's not much different from, say, a glass of milk and a piece of fruit, and the only reason it's being pushed is because it's the more attractive offer from the child's perspective, which makes me wonder whether it'll prove to be beneficial to their dietary habits later in life.

I do feel that seeing as they're part of the Change4Life campaign, Kelloggs are playing with fire in how they're doing this. Perhaps if there was something on the adverts that explained WHY a bowl of Coco Pops was a good alternative to other after school snacks, it'd be much more acceptable, but instead it's unsurprisingly been taken as an excuse to "pump more of their sugary product into kids" - and as they're part of a healthy eating campaign I feel that they really didn't think this one through.

In regards to cereals I like, I don't actually have cereal that often, except for recently when we've been eating Oat So Simple in the cold weather. My personal preferences for cereal are bran flakes and muesli, although while I was at uni (and having breakfast cereal regularly) I was happy to eat Tesco's economy frosted flakes.