But earlier in the week Kellogg’s published a press release saying that the company had developed a high-tech method of stamping out imitation cereals.
Blanket media coverage was given to the elaborate and strange sounding plan but a call to the Kellogg’s press office suggests that the story could be more about publicity than innovation.
In its original statement Kellogg’s had told the media that bosses at the company would be considering whether to insert some branded flakes into boxes of Corn Flakes.
Laser branded cereal
We were given plenty of information about “the new technology”. Apparently, a laser uses a concentrated beam of light which focuses the energy within the beam, down to a very small spot on a Corn Flake.
Mirror galvanometers are then used to steer the beam creating multiple vectors that reflect the laser from different angles and ultimately make up the image.
All this suggests that we could be starring down at tattooed Corn Flakes very soon. We were even told that, if successful, Kellogg’s may extend the project to other brands including Frosties, Special K, Crunchy Nut and Bran Flakes.
But when I called the Kellogg’s press office for more information they were keen to downplay the story.
"A great story"
Bosses were not about to decide whether to give the technology the green light. A Kellogg’s spokesperson said the marketing team regularly meet the “food tech guys” at the company who inform them about hundreds of ways to make products stand out. Branded flakes were just “one of many” and the marketing people just thought it would make “a great story”.
So far the cost of branding cereal has not been considered and the spokesperson admitted that it could well turn out to be prohibitively expensive.
Kellogg’s did come up with an explanation for why cereal stamps would be a useful tool in the fight against “imitation cereals”. The idea is that the logo would combat the perception that the cereal in a box of Corn Flakes is the same as the cereal in own brand equivalents.