Our world is full of technology. No matter where we are we are surrounded by televisions, computers, smartphones, and radios. On all of these devices are advertisements for anything from skincare products to health insurance. Many of these advertisements are bright, colorful and aimed directly at children. Children are an easy target and one branch of marketing seems to understand this better than others: the food industry.
Food industries such as Kellogg’s and General Mills have been using funny and colorful cartoon character to attract children to their cereal for decades. Perhaps none of these characters are more notorious than the Trix Rabbit, typically known for his famous antics always ending in a fruitless attempt to get his hands on a bowl of Trix cereal. This is always followed by the children laughing gleefully as they explain, “Silly rabbit, Trix are for kids.” . Nobody else is allowed to have them and no matter how hard you try, you will never get them unless you are a child. Trix cereal is a special joy granted only to those who are youthful and therefore special. Trix are for kids. Sickeningly sweet, sugary, overpriced cereal is strictly for children. That is the message the commercials aim to send.
According to Thomas Green’s article “Tricksters and the Marketing of Breakfast Cereals”, published in The Journal of Popular Culture, the children only got it partly right: The voiceover actor’s scripts should actually read, “Tricks are for kids.” . Adults are not present in the commercials; it is only the rabbit against the children. The rabbit is non-threatening, making the situation comical and fun rather than perilous and horrifying. This, Green mentions, is another trick. If the commercial were scary or serious the need for an adult presence might be needed or wanted by the child viewers but because the rabbit is nonthreatening with his harebrained schemes, pun intended, the children are not only excited at the prospect of sugary cereal but empowered at the idea of taking matters into their own hands (55). The cereal begins to represent a sugar fix as well as independence. This is dangerously effective. “Dangerous” is a fitting word because, of the top 5 most unhealthy cereals of 2010, Green lists Trix at the top with 65 percent less fiber than cereals aimed at adults and 85 percent more sugar (64). Even more dangerous still, many of the sweeter ingredients used in Trix and other sugary cereals have been proven to be addictive. Children eat them and literaly become addicted, wanting more. Seeing the Trix rabbit or hearing the familiar “Silly rabbit” slogan becomes a trigger in their brains. This trigger, Green says, can set the stage for bad eating habits that potentially last the rest of the child’s life if not remedied (92). Simply put, General Mills puts all of the “tricks” in “Trix are for kids.”
It is unfortunate that children are being tricked in this way. Perhaps the most unfortunate thing is that it is unsurprising. General Mills is almost mocking the intelligence of children with the seemingly clever misspelling of “Trix” right in their well-known one liner now used to hook young minds across the globe. The campaign for Trix cereal is well known by children and adults. The advertisements are a colorful cartoon that immediately gets the target audience’s attention, but the cereal is one of the unhealthiest cereals available on the market, suggesting that General Mills has questionable ethics when it comes to moving products to their younger consumers. The ingredients are addictive and children do not know any better. If General Mills spent time marketing healthy cereal with a cartoon rabbit, children would be better off and the company would not look so suspect.
References
Green, Thomas. "Tricksters and the Marketing of Breakfast Cereal." The Journal of Popular Culture (2007): 49-68. Print.
Horton, Russel. "Trix Cereal." By General Mills. 2013. television commercial.
