Kellogg's

History

The origins of the Kellogg Company trace to the Battle Creek Sanitarium, where John Harvey Kellogg served as superintendent from 1876 and his brother W. K. Kellogg worked as bookkeeper. The brothers, along with Ella Eaton Kellogg and other family members, were involved in the invention of flaked cereal in 1894. Accounts of the discovery vary, but it is generally agreed that John Kellogg left a batch of wheat-berry dough overnight and later sent it through rollers, producing delicate flakes that could be baked.

W. K. Kellogg persuaded his brother to serve the food in flake form, and packaged flaked wheat was soon mailed to sanitarium guests. John Harvey forbade Will from distributing cereal beyond his consumers, leading to a falling out. On February 19, 1906, W. K. launched the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company. A fire destroyed the main factory on July 4, 1907, but a new plant was in full operation six months later.

Will's company produced 120,000 cases of Corn Flakes daily by 1909 and was renamed the Kellogg Toasted Corn Flake Company that year, adopting the name Kellogg Company in 1922. John Harvey sued for the right to use the family name in 1906; the Michigan Supreme Court ruled in Will's favor in December 1920.

Brands

Kellogg's marketed a wide range of brands and products. Among its brands were Bear Naked, Cheez-It Crackers, Eggo, Fruit Winders, Fruity Snacks, Kashi, Krave, Morningstar Farms, Club Crackers, Nutri-Grain, Pop-Tarts, Pringles, Rxbar, Sunshine Biscuits, Town House, Zesta Crackers, Carr's, Rice Krispies Treats, Incogmeato, Froot Loops, Joybol, All-Bran, Apple Jacks, Austin Sandwich Cookies, Corn Pops, Cracklin' Oat Bran, Crispix, Frosted Mini-Wheats, Gardenburger, Honey Smacks, Jumbo Snax Cereal, Frosted Flakes, Corn flakes, Frozen Breakfast, Raisin bran, Mueslix Cereal, Pure Organic Fruit Bars, Smart Start Cereal, Smorz, Toasteds Crackers, and Special K. The company produced numerous cereal varieties, including All-Bran Original, Apple Jacks, Bran Flakes, Chocos, Cinnabon, Coco Pops (also called Cocoa Krispies or Choco Krispies in various countries), Corn Flakes, Corn Pops, Cracklin' Oat Bran, Crispix, Crunchy Nut, Disney-themed cereals, Froot Loops, Frosted Flakes (Frosties outside the US and Canada), Frosted Mini-Wheats, and many others.

In 2021, Kellogg and Crayola teamed up to create Crayola Jazzberry Cereal, a fruit-flavored cereal with a coloring book on the box.

Marketing

Kellogg's employed various promotional methods throughout its history. The company's logo was designed by Ferris Crane under the art direction of typeface designer Y. Ames. A well-remembered jingle was 'K E double-L, O double-good, Kellogg's best to you!'. The Kellogg Company of Canada published a book titled A New Way of Living that promoted All-Bran cereal as a means to achieve a 'normal' life free of constipation.

Kellogg's was a major sponsor of the CBS panel show What's My Line? and, along with Frosted Flakes and Rice Krispies, sponsored the PBS Kids series Dragon Tales. The company sponsored USA Gymnastics and produced the Kellogg's Tour of Gymnastics, a 36-city tour in 2016. Kellogg's became title sponsor of three college football bowl games: the Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl (announced 2019), the Pop-Tarts Bowl (using its Cheez-It brand, 2020), and the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl (2022).

W. K. Kellogg introduced prizes in cereal boxes, a strategy that produced thousands of different box prizes. The first cereal premium was The Funny Jungleland Moving Pictures Book, beginning in 1909; initially given in-store with two packages, it later became a mail-in offer for a dime, with over 2.5 million copies distributed over 23 years.

Misleading claims

On June 3, 2010, the Federal Trade Commission stated that Kellogg's had made unsubstantiated and misleading claims in advertising its cereal products. The FTC had previously found fault with claims that Frosted Mini-Wheats improved children's attentiveness by nearly 20%. The Children's Advertising Review Unit suggested removing 'Made with Real Fruit' language from Pop-Tarts packages. In July 2012, the UK banned a Special K advertisement for citing caloric values that did not account for milk consumed with the cereal; a 2016 ad calling Special K 'full of goodness' and 'nutritious' was also banned.

A class-action lawsuit filed in October 2021 claimed insufficient strawberries in strawberry-flavored Pop-Tarts, seeking $5 million in damages; it was dismissed by a federal judge in April 2022. Another 2021 lawsuit alleged fraud regarding the contents of Frosted Chocolate Fudge Pop-Tarts, claiming they lacked milk, milkfat, or butter; a US district judge dismissed the suit in June 2022, stating a reasonable consumer would not expect those ingredients.