Kellogg’s: It’s Strrrrrange!

Note: the tone of this post is blunt, occasionally sarcastic and borderline harsh, but my intention is not to be cruel. This ad left me thoroughly confused—I simply can’t make sense of it. Despite the tone, I believe this is a fair analysis of a campaign that raises more questions than it answers.

This summer, Kellogg’s aired what might be the strangest television commercial I’ve ever seen. It was an ad for Frosted Flakes that ran frequently, seemingly at all hours of the day, and left me utterly perplexed.

The ad features three interesting (read: bizarre) scenes set to the iconic theme song from Cheers, “Everybody Knows Your Name.” Sounds like a recipe for nostalgia, right? Not exactly. Here’s the breakdown:

• Scene 1: A group of young men are playing hockey. One of them is inexplicably eating a bowl of Frosted Flakes on the ice, only to be body-checked into the boards.

• Scene 2: A riff on Teen Wolf, perhaps? A young woman eats a bowl of cereal outside at night while running away from a werewolf in a letterman jacket.

• Scene 3: A fighter pilot is flying a jet. Suddenly, an animated Tony the Tiger appears behind him, handing him a bowl of Frosted Flakes. The pilot drops the controls to eat the cereal, causing the jet to bank suddenly.

What ties these scenes together? Absolutely nothing. And, in case there’s any doubt, Scenes 2 and 3 are labelled with “Dramatization. Do not attempt.” Do not attempt what, exactly? Don’t eat cereal while running away from a sharp-dressed werewolf? No Frosted Flakes while co-piloting a fighter jet with a cartoon tiger? Thanks for the heads-up, Kellogg’s legal team! See for yourself—I couldn’t make this up if I tried.

Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes television commercial, reviewed in the BP Communications blog for its approach and effectiveness as part of a marketing campaign.

Disconnected Themes and Mediums

Looking more closely, there’s no clear narrative, no cohesion and no apparent relevance between the visuals—or any connection to the song choice. There isn’t even a hint of product messaging. The mediums clash in a way that feels random and disjointed. The mix of real humans, a costumed werewolf and an animated Tony the Tiger feels completely disconnected. Add the Cheers lyrics, “Everybody knows your name,” and the entire ad comes across as utterly discombobulated.

Reverse-Engineering the Brief

As someone who spends a lot of time dissecting communications and marketing strategies, I tried to reverse-engineer the brief for this campaign. Here’s what I found:

• Objective? Unknown.

• Goal? Unclear.

• Target Audience? A mystery.

Despite the lack of clarity, one thing is obvious: the ad is not for children. They remain a major demographic for sugary cereals like Frosted Flakes, yet the nostalgia-heavy elements of Cheers and Teen Wolf hardly appeal to kids. (And yes, I know there are rules about marketing to children, but that doesn’t mean you should alienate them entirely!) The bizarre ad doesn’t seem aimed at parents either—the real decision-makers when it comes to grocery purchases for children.

A Case of Feedback Overload?

I can’t help but wonder how this ad made it through the review process. Did it suffer from too many rounds of feedback, diluting the original idea into something unrecognizable? Did the legal team veto a variety of other scenes that might have tied the story together? (We know they were involved, given the disclaimers on scenes 2 and 3.) Or was this an intentional, bold attempt at being familiar and likeable that simply didn’t land?

Side note: The legal team might regret not including a disclaimer on the hockey scene if someone laces up their skates this winter, grabs a bowl of Frosted Flakes on the rink, and takes a tumble.

The Real Problem

This feels like a classic case of marketing in a silo. The Frosted Flakes product marketing team likely had a budget to spend, created a flashy ad, tracked some surface-level metrics and declared it a win. But this campaign doesn’t appear to be part of a broader integrated marketing and communications strategy—one that ties tactics back to tangible business outcomes, like increasing sales.

The budget for this ad must have been significant, given its high frequency. That money could have been far better spent on tactics that directly drive sales—simple strategies like couponing, contesting or sampling would have been a clear improvement. Better yet, why not invest in a true multi-channel campaign that seamlessly integrates earned, owned, paid and social media—all aligned under a cohesive and unified strategy?

Regardless, if I had to guess, there’s likely a product marketing team somewhere celebrating the campaign’s success, pointing to spreadsheets filled with metrics like impressions, reach and recall. But here’s the thing—you could scream “Frosted Flakes” at me 100 times a day and achieve massive recall, but that doesn’t mean I’d buy your cereal. The message matters just as much as the delivery—if not more. Even with all the impressions and recall in the world, I suspect this ad failed to build brand affinity, boost the Net Promoter Score or make any measurable impact on cereal sales.

Verdict: Hard Go-Around (New to the blog? My tomatometer is explained here.)

This campaign is a hard Go-Around for me. Imagine a “heavy” on final approach, perfectly aligned for landing, when suddenly there’s a runway incursion ahead—a flock of birds or a stray ground vehicle appears out of nowhere. The aircraft powers up, climbs away, narrowly avoids disaster and leaves everyone a little jarred and confused about how it all went so wrong.

That’s exactly how this ad feels: an expensive maneuver with no clear strategy, no target audience in sight, and, I’d bet, negligible measurable sales impact. In my opinion, the money poured into this campaign could have been better spent—literally anywhere else.

The Comms Traffic Controller in me is frantically shouting:

"Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes team, go around. Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes team, go around! Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes team, go around!! KELLOGG’S FROSTED FLAKES TEAM, GO AROUND!!!" [IYKYK]

—Brock

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