Cereal Giant Casts About For Just The Right Angler
The company that makes the breakfast of champions is looking to put a winning fisherman on a box of Wheaties.
General Mills Inc. has announced it plans to put the winner of the Wal-Mart Forrest L. Wood Tour a bass fishing circuit on Wheaties boxes that will probably show up this summer on store shelves.
The Minnesota-based cereal company hopes to draw new customers from an untapped group of sports fans. Wheaties boxes typically feature Olympians or athletes from the major team sports such as baseball, basketball and football.
Irwin Jacobs, the chairman of the fishing tour, predicted the nation’s No. 2 cereal company will be surprised by the response, claiming that anglers are perhaps the most loyal group of people in the country.
“A lot more Wheaties will be eaten than they’ve ever seen before,” Jacobs said. “It could break every record they’ve ever seen.”
The winner of the tour will be announced in June based on results from six tournament stops.
The champion angler will be featured on two million boxes of cereal this fall. Only 25 athletes from 12 traditional sports have been so honored since gold-medal Olympian Bob Richards launched the program more than 40 years ago.
The fishing industry says it’s about time non-fishing related advertisers recognized the sales value of reaching more than 35 million American sport anglers.
The question remains how many of those anglers will give a hoot about a bass champ who has a fraction of the name recognition of Bruce Jenner, much less Michael Jordan.
The winner of a major bass tournament can take home around $250,000. But the family soaking worms from the dock at Fishtrap Lake on opening day probably doesn’t care.
Jacobs, a man with deep pockets, is the owner of a dozen boat companies, including Ranger Bass Boats. He also once owned the Minnesota Vikings.
He got fed up with the greed, the egos and the terrible example set by so many professional sports figures, said Brian Seynor, vice president of Operation Bass, another tournament organization owned by Jacobs.
“Irwin’s passion is fishing,” said Seynor. “Fishermen are athletes in their own right, but they’re a lot different from the traditional pro athlete. You won’t find pro fishermen charging fans for their autographs.”
But only time will tell how thousands of American kids will react this year when they pick up a box of Wheaties and find that Michael Jordan has been replaced by Denny Brauer, David Fritts, Kevin VanDam, Davy Hite, Gary Klein or Jay Yelas, to name a few of the bass tour favorites.
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Staff illustration by Bridget Sawicki