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Kellogg’s image and Michael Phelps.

So Olympic gold-medalist extraodinaire Michael Phelps got caught taking a hit of marijuana at a party in a South Carolina college. Missing a wonderful opportunity to pursue the obvious questions: ” How is it that Phelps did not become a slacker/stoner? How did someone whose marijuana use, the government says,  should have destined him for a life as a couch potato, win so many Gold Medals? ” the media have been focussing on his product endorsments and the money he stands to lose.

So far the only company to cancel Phelp’s contract has been Kelloggs, the giant breakfast cereal producer that has been pumping our children with sugar for generations. Citing concerns with their child-friendly image they dropped Phelp’s endorsment deal. So what about that child-friendly image? How does it stand up to examination?

The company’s founder Henry Kellogg was a health fanatic in the early part of the 20th century. He advocated eating lots of grains and little meat. He believed frequent enemas, with both water and yogurt were vital for good digestion. He also had a problem with masturbation which he believed caused cancer of the womb, urinary diseases, nocturnal emissions, impotence, epilepsy, insanity, and mental and physical debility.  OK, maybe he was wrong on some of the details. Science wasn’t as advanced as it is today. Nothing to harm the company’s image though… right?

Kellogg  warned that sexual activity, in particular many “excesses” that couples could be guilty of within marriage, were “against nature” and so, extremely unhealthy. He campaigned vigourously against masturbation, a habit which was generally frowned upon at the time. He felt that masturbation destroyed not only physical and mental health, but the moral health of individuals as well. Still, such a blend of Christianity’s condemnation of Onanism mixed with the accepted medical information of the time made his pronouncements on masturbation pretty mainstream. Certainly more mainstream than his calls for yogurt enemas, anyway.

Now how about this as an image you’d want associated with your company? In an effort to rehabilitate masturbating children Kellogg wrote a book entitled Plain Facts for Old and Young, in it  he wrote “A remedy which is almost always successful in small boys is circumcision ,…. The operation should be performed by a surgeon without administering an anesthetic, as the brief pain attending the operation will have a salutary effect upon the mind, especially if it be connected with the idea of punishment, as it may well be in some cases. The soreness which continues for several weeks interrupts the practice, and if it had not previously become too firmly fixed, it may be forgotten and not resumed.”

And let’s not forget the girls who might indulge in this life-destroying practice. Again, from Plain Facts for Old and Young:    ”In females, the author has found the application of pure carbolic acid [phenol] to the clitoris an excellent means of allaying the abnormal excitement.”  And, to prevent children from this “solitary vice” he also recommended, , bandaging or tying their hands, covering their genitals with patented cages, sewing the foreskin shut, and electrical shock. Now there are some real image enhancers that should appeal to today’s soccer moms who buy breakfast cereal.

In case Kellogg’s image hasn’t suffered enough from the above genital torture methods let me also point out that he was also a believer in and promoter of eugenics. Eugenicists believed in the identification and classification of individuals and their families into catagories such as the poor, mentally ill, blind, ‘promiscuous women’, homosexuals  and entire “racial” groups (such as the Gypsys and Jews) as “degenerate” or “unfit”. Then they urged  the segregation or institutionalisation of such individuals and groups, their sterilization, and even their “euthanasia”. This was considered a science at the time, even taught in some universities. It fell from favor after WWII when the extreme eugenics practised by the Nazis came to light.

What a guy ol’ Henry Kellogg.  Now I’m sure you understand why Michael Phelps smoking a little marijuana at a party could hurt their image.

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Ego Death said:

Its a business - the goal is making money and they made the decision that being associated with the stigma's of illegal drug use was not good for their business.

However hypocritical this is doesn't matter.  Of course they don't care - their goal is to make money, they made their decision based on that goal and thats it.

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