By Jeremy Selwyn
Chief Snacks Officer
11.12.2005
The local Star Market recently had vintage Kellogg's mascot cereal bowls for free with the purchase of two boxes of cereal. To sweeten the deal, several kinds of Kellogg's cereal were on sale at 2 for $4.
I've been using a set of four Kellogg's bowls for about 10 years, and these bowls were bigger and looked much nicer. Despite seeing an odd warning label, I bought four boxes of cereal and got the Froot Loops bowl featuring Toucan Sam, and Snap, Crackle & Pop's Rice Krispies bowl.
So here's the weird part: The label on the bottom of the bowls warns "FRAGILE: IF SIGNS OF WEAR SUCH AS CRACKS OR BREAKS OCCUR, PLEASE DISCARD."
I've never seen such a warning on any other dishes — and I buy almost exclusively cheap dishes. I suppose they could have just said "WARNING: THESE ARE COMPLETE PIECES OF JUNK." I took the warning to mean that the bowls are of low quality, not likely to last long, and could become hazardous. These are a promotional item intended to keep cereal eaters loyal to Kellogg's, and they should last as long as any other dishes. There's no excuse for Kellogg's going ultra-cheap.