Sun City West grandfather disturbed by ‘dark’ cereal ads

Metro Creative Connection

I recently returned from two months in Wisconsin visiting family, hoping to spend as much time as I could with my 3 ½-year-old grandson.

It was rainy, so we had to spend a lot of time indoors. A fair amount of that time was spent watching cartoons.

Don’t get me started on how awful cartoons are nowadays. Seems like everything now is dinosaurs or dragons. What happened to Bugs Bunny, The Flintstones or Popeye? Where are the Jetsons, Tweety and Sylvester? I guess that’s a different subject for another time.

What bothered me were the commercials my grandson and others are exposed to, specifically, the ads for a name-brand cereal. The whole premise of this ad campaign is a cannibalistic serial killer theme! I kid you not!

In one ad, the protagonist follows a cereal into an alley, murders and then eats the victim. In another ad, the protagonist is shown with parts of his victims in glass jars in the fridge so he can eat them later. If you don’t believe me, Google the ads.

I had a friend who made his living in advertising. He used to jokingly say, “Give me a puppy, a monkey or a good-looking woman and I can sell anything.”

Whoever dreamt this cereal ad campaign up, I don’t want to know. Whichever cereal company exec OK’d these ads should be fired, in my opinion.

Whether advertising like this has anything to do with mass school, church or synagogue shootings of late, probably not, but it sure ain’t helping! 

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