By Lara Mills
This editorial is reproduced with permission from
Marketing Magazine, January 17, 2000.

Hands up all of you who rolled your eyes in disbelief at the news that Kellogg USA had decided to ring in the year 2000 by ditching the Canadian-grown "Look Good on Your Own Terms" positioning for Special K cereal and falling back on that tried-and-true marketing tool: When in doubt, hire a supermodel. Talk about a complete 180.

Granted, Kellogg USA's new Special K spokesperson, Cindy Crawford, is one of the least waif-like of all the supermodels. And now, having recently delivered her son Presley into the world, Crawford projects the image of a gorgeous, modern all-American mom - minus, perhaps, the apple pie.

Nonetheless, Kellogg's decision to replace the groundbreaking "Look Good" strategy in the U.S. with Crawford represents a huge step backward for the brand, the company and, it can be argued, for society as a whole. True, the former campaign - which, thankfully, continues here in Canada - was a risky step for Kellogg. When "Look Good" launched here in 1996, the company was reluctant to admit how thoroughly the ads bashed the beauty myth. But with a year's worth of positive response from its female target market, Kellogg Canada went whole hog, saying it wanted Special K to be the brand that "inspires all women." Now Special K is involved in a slew of body-image-related initiatives in Canada, including partnering with Chatelaine magazine in 1999 for a survey on the subject.

Kellogg USA's take on the campaign could not have been more different. An executive at Leo Burnett USA in Chicago told the New York Times that women loved the "Look Good" campaign, but that it may have been "a little too far ahead of the curve." Kellogg USA also said it had done research that found "the key component missing was the aspirational aspect of wanting to look better, feel better than you actually are." Cindy Crawford, the company said, embodies the brand and puts back this "aspirational" element.

This is a common argument among women's magazine editors, who say they don't use more "real"-sized models in their pages because women don't want to look at themselves: they want to look at beautiful women they dream of being. But the fact remains that Crawford - in all her health and glory - still represents an industry that has inspired millions of young girls and women to starve themselves, or at the very least feel dissatisfied with their own appearance because they don't quite measure up to that ideal. This sort of "aspiration" doesn't strike us as ultimately that healthy.

The jarring reversal of tactics at Kellogg headquarters in Battle Creek, Mich. may speak more to the desperate market situation the company faces in the U.S. than anything else. But it also underscores what may be one of those subtle but true, tangible differences between Canada and the U.S. Our southern brethren truly do seem to buy into the "American dream" in all its forms, whereas we Canadians are just more willing to accept who we are and get on with it. So Kellogg Canada gives us a life-sized talking turkey harassing a jogger to illustrate how we needn't let our holiday eating haunt us, with the message "Resolve to Look Good on Your Own Terms." In the U.S., they get the unattainable image of Cindy Crawford.

The bright side in all this is that Kellogg recognizes these differences. The company here, at least, can continue to look good on its own terms.