Shreddies

Shreddies cereal pieces

A former Shreddies box in the United Kingdom

Shreddies is a breakfast cereal produced from shredded wheat, made from lattices of wholegrain wheat.

Manufacture

In the United Kingdom, the cereal was first produced by Nabisco's former UK division but is now made by Cereal Partners under the Nestlé brand at Welwyn Garden City. The factory opened in 1926. It began making Shreddies in 1953. The site was briefly owned by Rank Hovis McDougall in 1988, who sold it to Cereal Partners in 1990. Nestlé's site at Staverton started making Shreddies in 1998, and is where all production was moved to in 2007.

In Canada, production began in 1939 at Lewis Avenue, Niagara Falls, Ontario. Shreddies were produced under the Nabisco name until the brand in Canada was purchased in 1993 by Post Cereals whose parent company in 1995 became Kraft General Foods which sold Post to Ralcorp in 2008 and is now Post Foods Canada Corp., a unit of Post Holdings, which was spun off from Ralcorp in 2012.

The cereal is marketed with the whole grain symbol, as part of a marketing campaign emphasising the healthiness of the cereal. Wheat for Shreddies is sourced from over 500 different farms within the UK.^[1]

Sugared, chocolate and honey-flavoured versions of the cereal are available in the UK as Frosted Shreddies, Coco Shreddies and Honey Shreddies, and an orange-flavoured version of the Coco Shreddies has also become available recently. The former advertising slogan in the UK was: Keeps hunger locked up until lunch. The advertising slogan for the Frosted and Coco Shreddies was: Too tasty for geeks.

Advertising

United Kingdom

• For many years in the UK the Shreddies boxes featured Tom and Jerry (from the MGM cartoons). They regularly featured gifts in the boxes featuring Tom and Jerry, such as glow in the dark stickers sets, and puzzle books.

• It recently had a TV advert removed by the ASA as it provided an unfair comparison between school children eating Shreddies or eating nothing, rather than a similar cereal.^[2]

• For a few years, Shreddies' advert campaigns featured a cartoon personification of "Hunger" as an antagonist. He appeared as a blue monster with big teeth whose goal it was to taunt hungry individuals by drumming on their stomachs with a pair of silver spoons. Hunger would then be dispatched when the victim consumed a bowl of Shreddies, sealing Hunger inside a shreddie cage. Despite his troublesome persona, Hunger was frequently used as a mascot for the cereal during this period.^[3] The message during this time was "Shreddies keep hunger locked up 'til lunch" and most ads ended with a box of Shreddies rolling up in front of Hunger who then gets crushed in between it and a box of Frosted Shreddies zooming in from behind him.

• For a while in the early 2000s, Frosted and Coco Shreddies were advertised as "too tasty for geeks." The adverts would feature "geeks" trying to eat a bowl of either Frosted or Coco Shreddies, but being overwhelmed by its taste, followed by a much cooler kid being able to easily eat the Shreddies. Around this time, Coco Shreddies were once coated with more chocolate.

• In 2007 Shreddies' advertising centred around the claim that they are "knitted by nanas" with shots of a factory full of grandmothers knitting Shreddies. The ad was voted the 7th favourite ad of 2007. And from 2007 - 2011 the packaging was changed to include a photo on the inner flaps, of the nana who apparently knitted the specific box.

• In 2010, supporting the launch of a new "Scrumptious new recipe", Shreddies launched a promotion to find new nanas, using TV, Digital and Facebook, this subsequently built a huge fan base on Facebook.^[4] The fan page is now the 2nd largest cereal fansite in the world, providing entertainment, competitions and launching new ads to its loyal followers.

• As of 2012 the Shreddies Knitting Nanas continue to be used as spokesmen for the brand. The latest campaign was launched on Facebook to the fans in a 1 month build up to the premiere, with the ad going live on TV weeks later in April. The campaign message in 2012 is "Helping you through 'til lunch" (a reference to the early 90s strapline) ^[5][6]

Canada

• In Canada the cereal has been known for many years by its musical jingle, "Good Good Whole-Wheat Shreddies". The mascots of the cereal in Canada were Freddie and Eddie, two anthropomorphic (yet legless) pieces of the cereal. Around 1993, their appearance changed to that of a younger youthful age complete with baseball caps and they also grew hair and legs. By the late 1990s, the characters were discontinued in all advertising and packaging. The cereal is now marketed as an "adult" cereal.

• In January 2008, the company started a new ad campaign for new "Diamond Shreddies", Consumer reaction to the campaign has translated into a statistically significant sales increase, according to at least one media report on the campaign's success.^[7] The campaign won the 2008 Grand Clio Award for Integrated (i.e. multiple media) Campaign.^[8]

In popular culture

In January 2012 it was reported that boxes of Shreddies dating from the early 1970s had been selling on eBay, after being discovered in a village shop. They were reported to have been selling for about £160 per box on eBay.^[9]

The cereal is featured in the music video for Showtek featuring We Are Loud & Sonny Wilson's 2013 single "Booyah."

See also

• Chex

References

External links

• Nestlé Shreddies (UK)
• Frosted Shreddies (UK)
• Coco Shreddies (UK)
• Post Shreddies (Canada)