How Wheaties became ‘the breakfast of champions’
Recently featured in Marvel blockbusterThe Thunderbolts*—and with the Thunderbolts featured on a tie-in box—Wheaties has been the go-to champion breakfast for 100 years and counting
The cereal that would become when a clinician for the Washburn Crosby Company spilled wheat bran onto a hot stove. After several dozen attempts to fortify the cereal to withstand shipping, Washburn's Gold Medal Whole Wheat Flakes were released in November 1924. led to the name Wheaties—beating out other options like Nutties—and within a few years, promotion of the new cereal was revolutionizing product advertising.
On Christmas Eve 1926, Wheaties was featured in the first prerecorded jingle on Minneapolis radio station WCCO (named for Washburn-Crosby Company). was sung to the tune of “Jazz Baby.”
Jared Bahir Browsh is theCritical Sports Studiesprogram director in the ɫֱDepartment of Ethnic Studies.
Washburn-Crosby merged with three other mills and was renamed General Mills in 1928. After General Mills debuted on the , the company increased advertising for Wheaties and released the jingle nationwide.
Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, Wheaties established what would become a long association with sports when the cereal was featured on a billboard in the stadium for the Minneapolis Millers and was the main advertiser for the minor league baseball team’s broadcasts on the now . Knox Reeves, a Minnesota advertising executive, created a mock-up for a billboard in the Millers’ stadium featuring a box of the cereal with the tagline
Throughout the 1930s, the cereal continued to expand its reach nationally, sponsoring sporting and cultural events on more than 100 radio stations. Wheaties’ closest association was with baseball, and in became the first athlete featured on a box of Wheaties, a tradition that continues today.
The honor of appearing on a Wheaties box was not exclusive to athletes, or men; aviator . The following year, groundbreaking athlete Babe Didrikson, who won three medals at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics, After his record-breaking four gold medal performance at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, .
In 1937, Wheaties held a contest for the top play-by-play announcer in the country. The winner was a sports broadcaster from Des Moines, Iowa, who recreated Chicago Cubs games through transcribed telegraphs. The broadcaster won a trip to the Cubs Spring Training in California, and while there, it was recommended that he take part in a screen test for Warner Bros. Ronald Reagan began a film career that led to pursuing a career in politics, becoming the governor of California and the
The breakfast of champions in the world of tomorrow
Wheaties continued to set milestones in advertising when NBC featured the Brooklyn Dodgers and Cincinnati Reds in the first televised baseball game on August 29, 1939. The broadcast was a part of the World’s Fair taking place in Although the FCC did not authorize full commercial television until July 1, 1941, the commission gave special permission for live commercials during the game that was available to the 500 television set owners in New York City. Hall of Fame broadcaster Red Barber poured Wheaties and milk or cream into a bowl, announcing,
In 1986, Walter Payton was the first African American featured on the front of a Wheaties box. (Photo: General Mills)
By the 1940s, Wheaties had cemented its association with sports, even earning a mention in the song produced by Les Brown and his orchestra in the midst of DiMaggio’s record-breaking 56-game hitting streak. As television took off after World War II, advertising costs rose, leading Wheaties to pull back from its focus on sponsorships, instead using to advertise the cereal—an approach that was less expensive than sponsorship, but also less effective in promoting the brand.
As Wheaties declined in visibility, General Mills turned its attention to children’s programming, a strategy that helped Cheerios become one of the top cereals after General Mills rebranded “Cheerioats” following
This was not Wheaties’ first foray into entertainment programming; it had previously sponsored radio programs like “Jack Armstrong: All-American Boy.” Jack Armstrong was the first character to appear on a Wheaties box, in 1933, preceding Lou Gehrig by a year. He was created by General Mills’ Vice President Samuel Chester Gale to sell Wheaties. Gale went on to create Betty Crocker and lead the .
General Mills even featured a mascot, , created by puppeteer Bil Baird and voiced by Thurl Ravenscroft, who also voiced another cereal spokes-feline, Its sponsorships of children’s television shows like The Mickey Mouse Club backfired as adults began to avoid cereals associated with children, and children’s increased cereal consumption did not offset the loss of older consumers.
By the late 1950s, General Mills reinitiated Wheaties’ relationship with sports, hiring Olympic pole vaulter Bob Richards as its first spokesperson. Before Richards, athletes appeared on the back of the Wheaties box, but the Olympian was the first to appear on the , and athletes have remained on the front ever since.
As a part of his contract, Richards led the Wheaties Sports Federation that promoted physical fitness, Olympic sports and athletic education and published instructional books. They also advertised through sporting events again as one of the first brands to sponsor
Honored on the orange box
Similar to the or the , an athlete—or, recently, superheroes— represented mainstream stardom. was the first time a female medal winner appeared on the front, and two years later to be featured on the front of the box. By the end of the 1980s, fans could pay to have a .
In 1987, the Minnesota Twins were the first team to appear on a , from the same city in which Wheaties was created, won the World Series. In 1992, to celebrate the Chicago Bulls’ back-to-back championships, Wheaties produced a red and black box, . Bulls legend Michael Jordan was signed as a spokesperson for the cereal in 1988, appearing on the , followed by Tiger Woods with 14 appearances.
In recent decades, the , and Wheaties has not been immune to this downturn. With many more breakfast options, and the younger generations consuming less milk, cereal now occupies less space in the breakfast pantry. In spite of the public’s turn away from cereal toward healthier options, Wheaties remains an iconic brand, evidenced by its partnership with the blockbuster film set in the
Jared Bahir Browshis an assistant teaching professor ofcritical sports studiesin the ɫֱDepartment of Ethnic Studies.
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