When Kellogg’s did not renew the contract of swimmer Michael Phelps as a pitchman after he was photographed smoking from a bong, little did the hungry in San Francisco know it would be all to their benefit. More than 3,800 pounds of corn flakes and frosted flakes have wound up at one food bank, though Kellogg’s won’t say that it’s doing the dumping. Wrote the San Francisco Chronicle:
“So, though Kellogg’s and their star spokesman hit a patch of rough water, San Francisco’s hungry just got thrown a life preserver,” Food Bank spokeswoman Gayle Keck wrote in an e-mail.
The boxes flew off the shelves, but the food bank is keeping a few as souvenirs.
“So, though Kellogg’s and their star spokesman hit a patch of rough water, San Francisco’s hungry just got thrown a life preserver,” Food Bank spokeswoman Gayle Keck wrote in an e-mail.
The boxes flew off the shelves, but the food bank is keeping a few as souvenirs.
Kellogg’s is being mum about whether it is dumping boxes of flakes with Phelps’ picture on it, but the Chronicle said this conclusion seems logical:
San Francisco Food Bank executive director Paul Ash, it has become unusual for companies to offer cereal.
“It’s a very tough item to get,” Ash said. “In the last six or eight years, it’s become very hard to get ahold of.”
The sudden appearance of about 3,800 pounds of flakes would indicate that someone was trying to dump some unwanted stock. “It seems that way,” Ash said. “We do regularly see products with packages that are no longer desirable.”
I thought Kellogg’s overreacted in dropping Phelps for the horror of smoking some weed. But at least the company is doing the right thing by giving good cereal away to people who couldn’t care less what the guy on the box does in private.
Hat tip to Deadspin.
