Why A Wheaties Box Is Still Gold For Olympic Athletes

  • 2 months ago
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?

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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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