The Flintstones characters are the cartoons used to sell this line of cereal, and kids can play an interactive game online, called Bedrock Dance Academy. General Mills uses a similar strategy, with Trix the Rabbit, Lucky the Elf and Chef Wendall. The company also operates a very popular arcade game website for children, Millsberry.com.
Ultimately, I believe that a food company does not want to be held entirely responsible for its consumers. It is important for a consumer to trust your company, but in analyzing these examples, I've found what I believe to be several key lessons for companies in transitioning responsibility from the corporation to the consumer.1. Give consumers options and resources.
Taco Bell did a wonderful job at this objective. By providing an alternative, low-fat menu, along with exercise tips and outside links, the consumer cannot paint the company as entirely self-serving.
Games Like Millsberry Online
2. Educate your consumers.The Corn Refiners Association campaign for high fructose corn syrup was all about education and encouraged consumers to dispel the myths and gossip, instead discovering the true facts about their product. By not talking down to their consumer, but instead, empowering them and giving them access to information, as a consumer, I feel like many of the association's cards were on the table, and I am more willing to trust them.
3. Don't tell them what to do.
In the case of San Francisco mandating 'Meatless Mondays,' mandating a specific form of health is a sure way to stir up controversy. If there had been some kind of incentive to participate, I believe that would have been a better option; however, by only using negative reinforcement, a person's liberty (or at least confidence ordering a burger) is taken away.