Stories by the Spoonful
This story originally appeared in Children's Bookshelf on November 2, 2006 Sign up now!
by Karen Raugust, Children's Bookshelf -- Publishers Weekly, 11/2/2006
Cheerios Spoonfuls of Stories, the annual promotion in which General Mills gives away free books in 20-ounce Cheerios boxes, celebrates its fifth anniversary this year. All told, the company will have distributed 25 million free books (five million a year) and made $2 million in donations to First Book (resulting in five million books to disadvantaged children) by the time this year’s promotion wraps up in spring 2007.
“We think Cheerios and reading are a perfect match,” says Ricardo Fernandez, Cheerios marketing manager. “Cheerios is kids’ first finger food, the first food they can eat by themselves, and through this promotion we can give many of them their first book, too.” Studies have shown that over 60% of low-income children don’t have a single book at home; in a typical low-income neighborhood, there is only one book per 300 children.
This year’s effort begins during National Children’s Book Week (November 13–19) and features five well-known Simon & Schuster titles for ages 4-8: Wiggle, Olivia…and the Missing Toy, The Tiny Seed, Horace and Morris Join the Chorus (but What About Dolores?) and Little Quack’s Bedtime. The books are paperbacks with slightly smaller trim sizes so they fit into the box, but otherwise are identical to the versions found in stores. One exception: a Cheerios-exclusive edition of Little Quack will be in both Spanish and English. The Cheerios logo appears inside the covers.
Boxes include a window on the front so consumers can see which title is inside and a First Book donation form on the side panel so families can make their own gift to the organization, which uses 100% of the proceeds to buy books in the giver’s community. Spoonfuls of Stories is supported with tags at the end of Cheerios TV ads.
A new twist this year is a national tie-in with General Mills’ NASCAR sponsorship. During the last 10 Nextel races of the season, the company will donate 43 books, through First Book, to kids in need—a possible total of 135,000 copies—for every lap completed by Bobby Labonte, driver of the #43 Cheerios Dodge. The First Book Web site will feature a Bookometer where kids can check his progress.
