{"id":157,"date":"2025-05-01T11:39:15","date_gmt":"2025-05-01T11:39:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/calexis.com\/?p=157"},"modified":"2026-03-01T00:54:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T00:54:25","slug":"front-page-cereal-launch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calexis.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/01\/front-page-cereal-launch\/","title":{"rendered":"Front Page Cereal Launch"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/calexis.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/ProStars.jpg\"><\/a>There were established rules that limited the use of well known persons in advertising to children in Canada.&nbsp; Then our client, General Mills, let us know they had signed a deal to launch a cereal, Pro*Stars in 1983, that would feature <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gretzky.com\/\">Wayne Gretzky,<\/a> the Great One, on the package.&nbsp; It was the brainchild of <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Mike_Barnett_%28ice_hockey%29\">Mike Barnett<\/a>, Wayne&#8217;s manager.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was an innovative cereal that used aspartame to add a little sweetness to the oat based product.&nbsp; Because aspartame is so light, the cereal qualified as a source of protein, joining only Cheerios and one other cereal as a cereal that could qualify as a source of protein.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"358\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/calexis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/ProStars.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-158\" style=\"width:268px;height:374px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/calexis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/ProStars.jpg 358w, https:\/\/calexis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/ProStars-215x300.jpg 215w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 358px) 100vw, 358px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>That was great, but how do you promote a cereal to children without including the guy on the front of the box.&nbsp; So began our struggle to find a way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the meantime, we came up with a promotion that would allow us to circumvent the TV rules.&nbsp; We created a contest where the winner got Wayne to come over to their place for breakfast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The planets aligned for us.&nbsp; I was able to negotiate great partnerships with an AM radio station, CHED, and the Edmonton Sun newspaper.&nbsp; They both provided excellent support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then the Oilers won the Stanley Cup!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A young boy in South Edmonton won the contest.&nbsp; Perfect.&nbsp; I went out to Edmonton to oversee the event.&nbsp; The radio station aired from a remote in the kid&#8217;s family kitchen starting at 6 in the morning.&nbsp; We arrived, and Wayne, ever polite, went around to the backdoor to go in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We spent a couple hours there doing interviews, talking to the neighbours who were gathered around the backyard fence.&nbsp; Wayne autographed an entire palette load of Pro*Stars boxes that had been delivered.&nbsp; And we made the front page of the <strong><em>Edmonton Sun<\/em><\/strong> with Wayne pouring a bowl of Pro*Stars.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"534\" height=\"726\" src=\"https:\/\/calexis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Edmonton-Sun-ProStars.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-159\" style=\"width:322px;height:438px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/calexis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Edmonton-Sun-ProStars.png 534w, https:\/\/calexis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Edmonton-Sun-ProStars-221x300.png 221w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 534px) 100vw, 534px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Now, about those rules against using a well-known spokesman when advertising to kids.\u00a0 We crafted a message that spoke, generically, to kids about the importance of eating a good breakfast.\u00a0 Spoken by Wayne Gretzky. No Pro*Stars were shown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It challenged the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.adstandards.com\/en\/AdvertisingPreclearance\/childrens.aspx\">Advertising Standards Council<\/a> (now Ad Standards Canada) that had to pre-approve all advertising directed to kids.&nbsp; By not talking about the product but encouraging behaviour that was socially helpful &#8211; eating a good breakfast &#8211; we argued that there was no literal endorsement of the product by the celebrity.&nbsp; And the fact he was on the box was not an area of the Committee&#8217;s authority since it was not TV advertising.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We had no such trouble with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=-bGB-Q7zG2w\">TV advertising aimed at parents<\/a>.&nbsp; It did not have to be precleared by the ASC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We got to put our commercials on the air and the product did quite well for a number of years, achieving our goal of more than 1% share of the RTE cereal market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And Barnett, ever the salesman, years later convinced NBC to develop an animated kid&#8217;s TV show starring animated Wayne, Michael Jordan and Bo Jackson as super sports heroes, and they called it <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/ProStars\">ProStars<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We were lucky to get Front Page coverage.  When you use an athlete, make sure they win a gold medal or their league championship and your media coverage will explode.  Of course, the same is also true if they get arrested.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There were established rules that limited the use of well known persons in advertising to children in Canada.&nbsp; Then our client, General Mills, let us know they had signed a deal to launch a cereal, Pro*Stars in 1983, that would feature Wayne Gretzky, the Great One, on the package.&nbsp; It was the brainchild of Mike\u2026 <span class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/calexis.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/01\/front-page-cereal-launch\/\">Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":159,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advertising","category-life","category-media"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Front Page Cereal Launch - Calexis<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/calexis.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/01\/front-page-cereal-launch\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Front Page Cereal Launch - Calexis\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There were established rules that limited the use of well known persons in advertising to children in Canada.&nbsp; 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