A former Kellogg's ad executive explains how cereal makers used marketing tricks like adding sugar for "more morning energy" and hiding white flour behind terms like "enriched." After taking a GLP-1 medication, they noticed their brain's relationship with food completely changed.
My first job was working at an ad agency. Kellogg's was our client, and then we had two new cereals. One was called Smart Start and one was Raisin Bran Crunch.
Kellogg's Raisin Bran Crunch.
The legal team and the agency all had to get together and figure out what we could say. Turned out we could say that Raisin Bran Crunch gave more morning energy. And why? Because we had more sugar. When the ultra-processing of food happened and we came up with marketing terms like enriched flour—
The mill enriches its white flour with vitamins. Vitamins and minerals. Insist on enriched flour.
Which is actually the opposite. It's the poorest flour, you know, but enrichment sounds, you know, like it's something people, you know, want in their lives. We are under-fueling our bodies. How much of a role have ultra-processed foods played in the fact that we now need GLP-1? Everybody can get all wrapped up in what is in those ultra-processed foods. What I get wrapped up in is what is not in there. The day that I first injected myself with that medication, I turned around and I go, "You know what? I actually think this is what a normal person's brain is with food." It was an overnight difference.
