Why A Wheaties Box Is Still Gold For Olympic Athletes

Forbes

The Breakfast of Champions has long been a lucrative rite of passage for Olympians. Here’s how much it pays to be the face of it.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattcraig/2024/07/28/why-a-wheaties-box-is-as-good-as-gold-for-olympic-athletes/  0:00 Introduction 0:14 The Value Of A Wheaties Box 2:03 Caitlyn Jenner On Wheaties 4:15 Why Wheaties Leads To More Deals 8:39 What Is The Modern Day Wheaties? 12:55 How Much Does Wheaties Pay Sponsors?  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00Hi, everybody. I'm Brittany Lewis, a reporter here at Forbes. Joining me now is my Forbes

00:07colleague, reporter Matt Craig. Matt, thanks for coming on.

00:11Thank you for having me, Brittany.

00:14The Olympics are winding down and you're reporting why a Wheaties box is as good as gold for

00:19Olympic athletes. So talk about the value of appearing on the Breakfast of Champions

00:24box.

00:26Yeah, I think the biggest value is just the history, right? I know when I was, you know,

00:32a kid walking through the grocery store, I remember seeing every athlete I could imagine

00:36on that box. That story is kind of true for every generation of athletes since, I mean,

00:44they had their first athlete on the box in 1934. And so, yeah, one of the experts I talked

00:50to for this story said, you just simply cannot buy that history and that legacy that Wheaties

00:55has. Every iconic American athlete, specifically, you know, American athletes that you can think

01:02of has pretty much all appeared on that Wheaties box at one time or another. And so, yeah,

01:08if you're on it now, there's an association with Michael Jordan's and Tiger Woods's because

01:15it is still a pretty elite club. You know, they've had a little over 100 Olympians and,

01:21I don't know, maybe another 100 other athletes. So you're in a very, very small class with

01:28the best of the best. They've always associated with that. And so if you're an athlete, that's

01:34a very good association to have. And for some of the people that I talked to, that led to

01:40other endorsements and other opportunities. So, yeah, it's a very wholesome endorsement

01:46to have, an association to have, and then also a historic one.

01:50I mean, it's nostalgia overload. I remember being little and before an intramural game,

01:56my mom would say, eat your Wheaties. Hopefully I would perform like an Olympian. I mean,

02:01it didn't really happen because here I am right now. But you actually talked to an Olympian.

02:05You talked to Caitlyn Jenner, who appeared on the Wheaties box. Can you talk to us a little

02:09bit about that conversation? Yeah. I had a very cool opportunity to talk

02:16to three people that were on the Wheaties box, but specifically with Caitlyn Jenner.

02:21That's kind of, I would say the most iconic box from 1976. When Caitlyn Jenner was known

02:29as Bruce Jenner, of course, and won the decathlon, which is the event that, you know, gets the

02:35moniker of the world's greatest athlete. And, you know, Wheaties was still a very

02:42strong brand and known for their, was known for their athlete endorsements, of course.

02:48But they really, really blew out the post Olympics endorsements with Bruce Jenner. They

02:56signed her to a five-year deal and it was, it was TV commercials. It was touring around

03:04the country, you know, to events to talk about health. And of course, appearing on

03:09the box three different times. It was solidifying that relationship between here's the world's

03:16greatest athlete. Here's the breakfast of champions. And in a lot of people's minds,

03:21you know, from that older generation, they will always associate Bruce Jenner with the

03:27Wheaties box. And talking to Caitlyn now, that opportunity was kind of a proof of concept

03:36for other brands and led to, you know, endorsements with Minolta cameras or chocolate can orange

03:43juice and kind of cemented Jenner as a celebrity, not just an Olympic athlete, but someone that

03:52could be in commercials. And of course, over the years, Jenner was able to capitalize on

03:59that and become quite a celebrity in her own right. But I do think it all started and she

04:05would say this, it all started with appearing on the Wheaties box.

04:09And she did say that to you, that it was by far out of everything I've done in my career,

04:13General Mills had the biggest impact. And as you're saying, being on a Wheaties box

04:18is almost like that domino effect. You're on the Wheaties box and then income more deals.

04:23Talk about that, not just with Caitlyn Jenner, but with other athletes as well.

04:27Yeah. So if you think about the first sponsors that come to an athlete, they're going to

04:34be brands that are right around for your very specific thing. So it might be sports energy

04:41drinks or a brand of athletic equipment or something like that. Michaela Shiffrin talked

04:50about to me about like, hey, here's someone that is showcasing me, my face on the box

04:59in context, you know, like people can see that I am a ski racer. She said like some

05:05other endorsements over the years, you know, they put her in a nice dress and give her

05:09makeup and things like that. And she looks great. But this is like showing her in her

05:16athletic context, but out to like a mass audience. You're going to be on the shelves of a grocery

05:22store and everyone who is athlete, non-athlete, you know, is going to see that. I think as

05:28I get into my story, maybe less so now than in past generations, but it just increases

05:35your profile and the best of the best. And for Michaela Shiffrin, for Misty May Trainer,

05:44the volleyball player I also talked to, that led to other opportunities as kind of like

05:49a stamp of approval from one of the most well-known brands out there. Other brands were able to

05:56pick up on that and led to more deals and obviously more earnings that we care about

06:01on the foreside of things for for these athletes. And a lot of them became household names after

06:09starting kind of with the springboard of General Mills and the Weedy Sparks. But in your story,

06:15you describe it as almost as a rite of passage for a top athlete. But you kind of hinted

06:19at just now that it almost doesn't have the same influence as it did back then. I mean,

06:26does it have this same effect on the culture now as it did in the 70s when then Bruce Jenner

06:32appeared on the box?

06:35No, it definitely doesn't. I think just objectively, fewer people are eating cereal for breakfast

06:41and fewer people are eating Wheaties of the cereal options, even within like every brand

06:49or every company now has many brands that are health conscious, you know, that's going

06:54after that same audience or that same consumer who maybe before Wheaties was was seen as

07:01the healthy cereal. Right now there's a dozen healthy cereals. So that's just an objective

07:06fact. And I think because of that and because of the way culture has moved forward now, I

07:13wonder and I have a strong suspicion that the athletes growing up today, they aren't

07:18dreaming about being on the Wheaties box in the same way that, for example, like Misty

07:22May Trainer was and told me that she was like, I when I heard that that was not something

07:29that we could get if we won, I really wanted it. I grew up, you know, reaching for that

07:33Mary Lou Retton box or, you know, seeing my hero Michael Jordan on there. And that's what

07:37I wanted. But today I think kids, you know, they have other kind of like crossover cultural

07:44appeal through things like, you know, playable skins in Fortnite or appearing on, you know,

07:51hot ones or, you know, whatever, whatever that that thing is. Now, I feel like it's

07:55different than being on a cereal box. And even if you are on the cereal box, I think

08:01that almost the the bigger value for that now is, wow, that makes for good social media

08:08content. You know, it's like I'm on the box and that's going to be great whenever I tweet

08:12a picture of me on the box, you know, or put that on my on my Instagram page or make a

08:17TikTok about it or whatever. And so, yeah, I think that certainly the modern Wheaties

08:24box is no longer the Wheaties box. It is still valuable because of the historic nature of

08:32it. And it's hard to see it going away, but it has definitely lost some cachet from from

08:37the 70s, no doubt.

08:39To your point, though, is there a present day version of the Wheaties box? I know you

08:44mentioned a few crossover things, but is there anything just as iconic as that for

08:49an athlete?

08:51I think the the issue is that there's many, many things, you know, when when Lou

08:57Gehrig appeared on the Wheaties box in 1934, like that was sports marketing. You know,

09:04they were I'm not going to say they're the only the only game in town, but they were

09:08basically one of the only options you're talking about pre social media. If you're

09:13talking about a pre television age at that point. And and so, yeah, the idea of being

09:19on a cereal box was like kind of the thing, you know, and now there's just a million

09:25things. I think Kayla Schifrin said this to me, like it was cool. And now everything is

09:32cool. You know, appearing on Dancing with the Stars is cool. Like being a Saturday Night

09:37Live host is cool. Again, you know, like I said, Hot Ones or Fortnite or, you know,

09:44being on a podcast, you know, popular podcast that might be like the the thing that leads

09:50to other deals. And it can be a springboard for your for your career. I mean, one thing

09:56I mentioned was like there's a diver at the twenty twenty one Olympics who was just

10:01caught on like kind of a candid moment knitting on the side of the pool and it went

10:06viral. And now this guy has, you know, a million followers on TikTok and has his own

10:11knitwear brand. So like his his springboard was getting caught on the candid camera

10:19knitting. You know, so I just think that like there's so many options now that any one

10:24thing doesn't like hold the same power that being on the Wheaties box in the 70s or

10:3080s or even 90s would have.

10:33I think you're talking about Tom Daley there, and he did make he did knit rather an incredible

10:37sweater in Paris. But this Wheaties box conversation is almost like a chicken and an egg

10:43situation. Does Wheaties pick iconic athletes or is your status as an icon cemented by

10:50being on the Wheaties box?

10:53Yeah, I think it's a great question. I think they've had a combination of both

10:58throughout time. If you think about the Olympians, a lot of them, you know, were

11:03unknown. You know, they weren't famous because the Wheaties box are famous because they

11:08won a gold medal. But again, Wheaties was could be that springboard into more mainstream

11:13popularity. But then again, whenever they put Michael Jordan on the box or Tiger Woods,

11:18you know, I don't think those guys were necessarily hurting for for exposure at various

11:23points in their careers. So it's a combination of both.

11:27The real question that I have now is whether Wheaties needs the athletes more than

11:33the athletes need Wheaties.

11:35I think the athletes want Wheaties and they like Wheaties because they still grew up,

11:41you know, being nostalgic for last last year's there was a JJ Watt and his brother TJ

11:47Watt were on the box. And they mentioned in the press release that it was like a dream

11:51that they had, you know, since being a kid.

11:53So athletes still want to be on the box because of that nostalgia factor.

11:57But I think, you know, Wheaties needs the athletes just as much because it is kind of

12:04impossible at this point to see why General Mills would sell Wheaties were it not for

12:10the athletes on the cover.

12:11You know, if athletes were suddenly to not want to appear, there's no real reason why

12:17Wheaties would exist otherwise.

12:19And so, yeah, I think the dynamic is interesting and it is has changed somewhat.

12:25And that it's it will be interesting to see in future years if that is reflected in the

12:30the compensation, because compared to other, you know, endorsements, Wheaties is not known

12:37as being an incredibly lucrative one.

12:40But maybe in the future they will have to pay more because, you know, the power dynamic

12:44has shifted. I don't know.

12:45That's that's me speculating.

12:46But but I do feel like the the kind of big picture trends in that industry have have

12:53changed. Talk about that a little bit for us.

12:57Does Wheaties pay out based on performance, based on caliber of athlete?

13:02What does that look like?

13:05I mean, I think it's it's, you know, supply and demand and it's what an athlete can I

13:10guess what an athlete would be willing to say no to in all circumstances.

13:14You know, that's how these negotiations go.

13:15But yeah, Wheaties has always been known as not the highest, you know, or most lucrative

13:23paycheck because of, again, all the sentimental value and all the things that we've

13:28talked about. But there were some examples in the 1990s of players being offered, you

13:34know, or Olympians being offered $15,000 to appear on the box.

13:38And, you know, the Wall Street Journal reported in the 90s that the 1998 USA women's

13:45hockey team appear on the box for zero compensation.

13:47Right. And so that, you know, you think about that was maybe like kind of the peak of

13:53or one of the peaks of Wheaties box popularity.

13:56But today, if you're like a tip top, extremely well-known athlete, super worldwide

14:03famous, that still is topping out around $300,000.

14:07And kind of these lesser known Olympians are being offered in this $75,000 to $100,000

14:12range. The the, you know, the ask is a lot less than what we mentioned in the 70s with

14:19with Caitlyn Jenner.

14:21You know, it's it's relatively small time investment, but we're living in an era where

14:26multimillion dollar sponsorship deals are relatively commonplace and you can get them.

14:31And so, yeah, $300,000 if you're a, you know, I don't know, Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan

14:37level of icon is not that much.

14:40So you kind of you have to have other reasons why you want to do it.

14:44Matt Craig, great story per usual.

14:46Thanks again for coming on.

14:48Always a pleasure, Brittany.

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