Fruit Monster Advertisement Analysis

cereal products are commonly advertised to children through the use of colourful, affable mascots; in fact, 54% of cereal ads use a branded character to promote their product (Kline 93). Toucan Sam is a prime example of such a character, and after decades of repeated exposure through TV advertisements, this cartoon bird has become synonymous with the Froot Loops brand. This essay will analyze and evaluate a particular Froot Loops TV advertisement part one of their “Fruit Monster” ad campaign, which depicts a giant alien monster who comes to Earth and kidnaps Toucan Sam in his search for Froot Loops cereal. Like most sugary cereals, Froot Loops’ target audience is children, and this advertisement targets them effectively. The use of food techniques

The ad’s colours match that of their product and mascot the forest contains giant fruit pieces hanging from trees and the fruit monster villain is a garish green colour with bulging, white and red eyes., Froot Loops creates an ad that is meant to entertain children rather than inform them. The cliffhanger ending not only acts as a hook for children to stay tuned to watch more Froot Loops ads, but it is also a fun way to involve them in the story. Froot Loops’ Fruit Monster ad’s implementation of fun-food techniques and entertaining content fits into a larger marketing trend, which has shown that directly targeting children is often more effective than targeting parents. This trend has its societal roots, which have been researched extensively. According to Juliet B. Schor, “Children are becoming shoppers at an earlier age. Six to twelve year olds are estimated to visit stores two to three times per week and to put six items in the shopping cart as they go” (23). However, in addition to children shopping more than they used to, the dynamic of the child-parent relationship is changing, as well. While parenting styles of the past were more authoritarian, today’s parents want to involve their children in their consumer choices, in some cases so much so, that they will overindulge their children with anything that they ask for. Anne Sutherland and Beth Thomas refer to these Copp 3 parents as “indulgers” or “pushover parents,” and they represent the largest segment of the population at 33 percent (119). The influence that children have over consumer decisions, also referred to as “Kidfluence” (Sutherland and Thomas), is