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AISLE 3 · CEREAL
Breakfast Mates
by Kellogg's
Gone since August 1999, when Carlos Gutierrez ended it four months into his first year running Kellogg's. Business-school case studies still call it Cereal Mates; the company's own filings and the reporting at the time called it Breakfast Mates.
The ads pitched children feeding themselves while their parents slept in: a bowl, a spoon and a little carton of milk, sealed into one kit. Kellogg's spent roughly $30 million telling that story, and the whole thing lasted a year.
🧾 One more thingAseptic packaging meant the milk kept at room temperature, which was the entire point of the design — yet the kits went into the refrigerated case anyway, because shoppers would not accept unrefrigerated milk. Cereal buyers never walked past them.
🕯️ Shoppers also mourned