New York (CNN) — Years ago, Special K targeted women by promising they could lose weight by replacing two meals a day with bowls of cereal. Today, she’s trying a different approach.
The cereal brand collaborated with Molly Baz, a cookbook author who recently starred in a breastfeeding cookie ad, to create a limited-edition box. It is the first cereal box to feature a pregnant woman, according to the brand.
The box, which features a pregnant Baz, can be purchased on Kellogg’s website. It is part of the brand’s “Special for a Reason” marketing campaign, which features “inspiring people.”
Partnering with popular figures can be a way for a brand to try to revive interest in a stagnant category. WK Kellogg, owner of Special K, Corn Flakes, Kashi and other cereal stalwarts, reported that net sales fell 1.9% year over year in the quarter ended March 30.
Baz sparked a conversation around the representation of pregnant bodies thanks to a recent advertising campaign for Swehl, a company that sells accessories for breastfeeding parents and offers a cookie recipe made with the author.
The ad shows a pregnant, bikini-clad Baz holding the cookies over her breasts, alongside the words “Just Add Milk.” Apparently, she was removed from a rotation of digital billboards in Times Square in New York.
“Extremely disappointed and yet not at all surprised that @clearchanneloutdoor deemed our bold breastfeeding empowerment campaign ‘inappropriate’ and removed our billboard after just 3 days,” Baz wrote in an Instagram post on the 10th. of May. (Since then, she said in subsequent posts, others have placed the ad on other billboards.)
In an Instagram post about the collaboration with Special K, Baz wrote that “the last month has literally been a blur, but it is without a doubt one of the greatest joys of my career to date to be the first pregnant woman on a cereal box.” “.
Baz added that the campaign took place when she was 39 weeks pregnant.
