Recently featured in Marvel blockbuster The Thunderbolts*—and with the Thunderbolts featured on a tie-in box—Wheaties has been the go-to champion breakfast for 100 years and counting

The cereal that would become Wheaties was accidentally invented in 1921 when a clinician for the Washburn Crosby Company spilled wheat bran onto a hot stove. After several dozen attempts to fortify the cereal to withstand shipping, Washburn's Gold Medal Whole Wheat Flakes were released in November 1924. An employee contest led to the name Wheaties—beating out other options like Nutties—and within a few years, promotion of the new cereal was revolutionizing product advertising.

On Christmas Eve 1926, Wheaties was featured in the first prerecorded jingle on Minneapolis radio station WCCO (named for Washburn-Crosby Company). “Have You Tried Wheaties” was sung to the tune of “Jazz Baby.”

Jared Bahir Browsh is the Critical Sports Studies program director in the CU Boulder Department of Ethnic Studies.

Washburn-Crosby merged with three other mills and was renamed General Mills in 1928. After General Mills debuted on the New York Stock Exchange in November of 1928, the company increased advertising for Wheaties and released the jingle nationwide.

Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, Wheaties established what would become a long association with sports when the cereal was featured on a billboard in the stadium for the Minneapolis Millers and was the main advertiser for the minor league baseball team’s broadcasts on the now General Mills-owned WCCO. Knox Reeves, a Minnesota advertising executive, created a mock-up for a billboard in the Millers’ stadium featuring a box of the cereal with the tagline “The Breakfast of Champions.”

Throughout the 1930s, the cereal continued to expand its reach nationally, sponsoring sporting and cultural events on more than 100 radio stations. Wheaties’ closest association was with baseball, and in 1934 Yankees legend Lou Gehrig became the first athlete featured on a box of Wheaties, a tradition that continues today.

The honor of appearing on a Wheaties box was not exclusive to athletes, or men; aviator Elinor Smith was featured on the box in 1934. The following year, groundbreaking athlete Babe Didrikson, who won three medals at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics, appeared on the box. After his record-breaking four gold medal performance at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Jesse Owens was the first African American to appear on the box.

In 1937, Wheaties held a contest for the top play-by-play announcer in the country. The winner was a sports broadcaster from Des Moines, Iowa, who recreated Chicago Cubs games through transcribed telegraphs. The broadcaster won a trip to the Cubs Spring Training in California, and while there, it was recommended that he take part in a screen test for Warner Bros. Ronald Reagan began a film career that led to pursuing a career in politics, becoming the governor of California and the 40th President of the United States.     

The breakfast of champions in the world of tomorrow

Wheaties continued to set milestones in advertising when NBC featured the Brooklyn Dodgers and Cincinnati Reds in the first televised baseball game on August 29, 1939. The broadcast was a part of the World’s Fair taking place in Queens in 1939 and 1940. Although the FCC did not authorize full commercial television until July 1, 1941, the commission gave special permission for live commercials during the game that was available to the 500 television set owners in New York City. Hall of Fame broadcaster Red Barber poured Wheaties and milk or cream into a bowl, announcing, "Now that's the breakfast of champions."

 

In 1986, Walter Payton was the first African American featured on the front of a Wheaties box. (Photo: General Mills)

By the 1940s, Wheaties had cemented its association with sports, even earning a mention in the song “Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio” produced by Les Brown and his orchestra in the midst of DiMaggio’s record-breaking 56-game hitting streak. As television took off after World War II, advertising costs rose, leading Wheaties to pull back from its focus on sponsorships, instead using testimonials in commercial spots to advertise the cereal—an approach that was less expensive than sponsorship, but also less effective in promoting the brand.

As Wheaties declined in visibility, General Mills turned its attention to children’s programming, a strategy that helped Cheerios become one of the top cereals after General Mills rebranded “Cheerioats” following Quaker Oats claiming ownership of the word “oats.”

This was not Wheaties’ first foray into entertainment programming; it had previously sponsored radio programs like “Jack Armstrong: All-American Boy.” Jack Armstrong was the first character to appear on a Wheaties box, in 1933, preceding Lou Gehrig by a year. He was created by General Mills’ Vice President Samuel Chester Gale to sell Wheaties. Gale went on to create Betty Crocker and lead the Advertising Council from 1950 to 1951.

General Mills even featured a mascot, Champy the Lion, created by puppeteer Bil Baird and voiced by Thurl Ravenscroft, who also voiced another cereal spokes-feline, Tony the Tiger. Its sponsorships of children’s television shows like The Mickey Mouse Club backfired as adults began to avoid cereals associated with children, and children’s increased cereal consumption did not offset the loss of older consumers.

By the late 1950s, General Mills reinitiated Wheaties’ relationship with sports, hiring Olympic pole vaulter Bob Richards as its first spokesperson. Before Richards, athletes appeared on the back of the Wheaties box, but the Olympian was the first to appear on the front of the box in 1958, and athletes have remained on the front ever since.

As a part of his contract, Richards led the Wheaties Sports Federation that promoted physical fitness, Olympic sports and athletic education and published instructional books. They also advertised through sporting events again as one of the first brands to sponsor pregame and postgame shows.

Honored on the orange box     

Similar to the cover of the magazine Sports Illustrated or the video game series Madden, an athlete—or, recently, superheroes—being chosen to appear on a Wheaties box represented mainstream stardom. Mary Lou Retton’s iconic 1984 box was the first time a female medal winner appeared on the front, and two years later Walter Payton was the first African American to be featured on the front of the box. By the end of the 1980s, fans could pay to have a Wheaties box made with their picture.

In 1987, the Minnesota Twins were the first team to appear on a Wheaties box in 1987 after the team, from the same city in which Wheaties was created, won the World Series. In 1992, to celebrate the Chicago Bulls’ back-to-back championships, Wheaties produced a red and black box, the first time it broke with the iconic orange color. Bulls legend Michael Jordan was signed as a spokesperson for the cereal in 1988, appearing on the box a record 19 times, followed by Tiger Woods with 14 appearances.

In recent decades, the cereal industry has seen a dramatic decline, and Wheaties has not been immune to this downturn. With many more breakfast options, and the younger generations consuming less milk, cereal now occupies less space in the breakfast pantry. In spite of the public’s turn away from cereal toward healthier options, Wheaties remains an iconic brand, evidenced by its partnership with the blockbuster film set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Jared Bahir Browsh is an assistant teaching professor of critical sports studies in the CU Boulder Department of Ethnic Studies.

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