by Marion Nestle
Jul 30 2013

Breakfast cereals: hefty money-makers (especially those with sugar)

Food Navigator just did a report on cereal “blockbusters,” the top best-selling brands.

Numbers like these are so hard to come by that they inspired me to make a table.

I looked up some figures on advertising expenditures for specific cereals from Advertising Age, 100 leading advertisers (June 24, 2013).

Top selling cereal brands, July 2012-June 2013

RANK CEREAL COMPANY REVENUE,$ MILLIONS * ADVERTISING.$ MILLIONS *
1 Honey Nut Cheerios General Mills 556 **
2 Frosted Flakes Kellogg 446  50
3 Honey Bunches of Oats Post 380  —
4 Cheerios General Mills 364 **
5 Cinnamon Toast Crunch General Mills 292 36
6 Special K Kellogg 284 141
7 Frosted Mini Wheat Kellogg 281 67
8 Lucky Charms Kellogg 259 15
9 Froot Loops Kellogg 176 13
10 Raisin Bran Kellogg 170 13

*All numbers rounded off.  **All forms of Cheerios: $167 million

My conclusions:

  • At least 8 of the top 10 are sugary cereals.
  • At least 5 are targeted to children.
  • Six of the top 10 are made by Kellogg.
  • Advertising expenditures are roughly proportional to sales (Special K is an exception: not sure why).

Think about what that money could do if used to promote public health.

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