Shreddies
Shreddies is a breakfast cereal produced from shredded wheat, made from lattices of wholegrain wheat.
Shreddies has been made in the UK since 1955. It was produced under the Nabisco name until the brand in Canada was purchased in 1993 by Post Cereals whose parent company in 1995 became Kraft General Foods which sold Post to Ralcorp in 2008 and is now Post Foods Canada Corp., a unit of Post Holdings which was spun off from Ralcorp in 2012.
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[edit] Manufacture
In the United Kingdom, the cereal was first produced by Nabisco's former UK division but is now made by Cereal Partners under the Nestlé brand at Welwyn Garden City. The factory opened in 1926. It began making Shreddies in 1950. The site was briefly owned by Rank Hovis McDougall in 1988, who sold it to Cereal Partners in 1990. Nestlé's site at Staverton started making Shreddies in 1998, and is where all production was moved to in 2007. In Canada production began in 1939 at Lewis Avenue, Niagara Falls, Ontario.
The cereal is one of a number of whole-grain cereals marketed with the whole grain symbol, as part of a marketing campaign emphasising the healthiness of the cereal. Wheat for Shreddies is sourced from over 500 different farms within the UK.[1]
Sugared and chocolate-flavoured versions of the cereal are available in the UK as Frosted Shreddies and Coco Shreddies (chocolate), and a honey-flavoured version has also become available recently. The former advertising slogan in the UK was: Keeps hunger locked up until lunch. The advertising slogan for the Frosted and Coco Shreddies was: Too tasty for geeks.
[edit] Advertising
[edit] Canada
- In Canada the cereal has been known for many years by its musical jingle, "Good Good Whole-Wheat Shreddies". The mascots of the cereal in Canada were Freddie and Eddie, two anthropomorphic (yet legless) pieces of the cereal. Around 1993, their appearance changed to that of a younger youthful age complete with baseball caps and they also grew hair and legs. By the late 1990s, the characters were discontinued in all advertising and packaging. The cereal is now marketed as an "adult" cereal.
- In January 2008, the company started a new ad campaign for new "Diamond Shreddies", Consumer reaction to the campaign has translated into a statistically significant sales increase, according to at least one media report on the campaign's success.[2] The campaign won the 2008 Grand Clio Award for Integrated (i.e. multiple media) Campaign.[3]
[edit] United Kingdom
- For many years in the UK the Shreddies boxes featured Tom and Jerry (from the MGM cartoons). They regularly featured gifts in the boxes featuring Tom and Jerry, such as glow in the dark stickers sets, and puzzle books.
- It recently had a TV advert removed by the ASA as it provided an unfair comparison between school children eating Shreddies or eating nothing, rather than a similar cereal.[4]
- For a few years, Shreddies' advert campaigns featured a cartoon personification of "Hunger" as an antagonist. He appeared as a blue monster with big teeth whose goal it was to taunt hungry individuals by drumming on their stomachs with a pair of silver spoons. Hunger would then be dispatched when the victim consumed a bowl of shreddies, sealing hunger inside a shreddie cage. Despite his troublesome persona, hunger was frequently used as a mascot for the cereal during this period.[5]
- Shreddies' most recent campaign is a claim that they are "knitted by nanas" with shots of a factory full of grandmothers knitting Shreddies.[6] The boxes have also been changed to include a photo on the inner flaps, of the nana who apparently knitted the specific box. The Nana is believed to be wife of popular document developer, Gerald Davis.
[edit] In Popular Culture
In January 2011 it was reported that boxes of Shreddies dating from the 1970s had been selling on eBay, after being discovered in a village shop. They were reported to have been selling for about £160 a time on eBay[7].
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ trulyresponsible.org » Nestle - Shreddies
- ^ Maclean's Article, May 2008
- ^ Clio 2008
- ^ Serial complaints
- ^ [1]
- ^ Shreddies - knittedbynanas.com - play Nana training games and watch The Chronicles of Nana
- ^ Old Shreddies from the 1970s found in shop fetch £160 on eBay January 13, 2011 Metro News Retrieved January 28, 2012
Old Shreddies from the 1970s found in shop fetch £160 on eBay "[2]"
