Dive Brief:
- General Mills is looking to raise awareness of the plight of the bees by removing its long-time spokesbee from its Honey Nut Cheerios box, according to The Street.
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Instead of “BuzzBee” appearing on its cereal, now there’s a white outline where he used to be.
- Cheerios launched the campaign, #BringBackTheBees, with the goal for families to plant more than 100 million wildflowers and help save the honeybee colony collapse.
Dive Insight:
The decision to replace the iconic BuzzBee with a white, eerie outline of the character is sure to bring attention to the Honey Nut Cheerios brand. However, some are questioning whether the move was made to further educate consumers about the decline of the bee population or to help boost sales.
Cereal sales have recently been on a downward trend. Nielsen reported sales of ready-to-eat cereals fell 1.7% for the year that ended Feb. 25 to approximately $8.64 billion. Adult cereals were especially bad, deceasing 3.2% to $2.58 billion. Anything that could help recharge sales is welcome. Both General Mills and Kellogg have recently debuted new cereal brands and flavorings in hopes of reinvigorating interest in the category.
However, bee scarcity is a major problem that needs to be addressed, and alerting consumers to it is a savvy move. Bees are disappearing at an alarming rate due to a phenomenon known as colony collapse disorder. Honeybee pollination alone accounts for $15 billion in crops from more than 130 fruits and vegetables.
Any time a company can bring attention to a problem is considered a good marketing move by most analysts. Whether this move does anything to help—either with improving sales or with improving the honeybee situation—won’t be known for sometime.