How constipation cure became huge business
Processed breakfast cereals were invented by the temperance movement in the 19th century in the United States.
The Reverend Sylvester Graham first preached the virtues of a vegetarian diet and the importance of wholemeal flour. Granula was developed from his "Graham flour" by one of his followers. It was a baked lump of wheat and water that had to be soaked overnight to be edible. It was sold at 10 times the cost of its ingredients.
Breakfast cereals today remain what economic analysts call a "high margin-to-cost business". One of the biggest costs is the marketing, which is typically 20-25% of the sales value, according to analysts JP Morgan. Gross profit margins on processed cereals are 40-45%.
Seventh Day Adventists took up the mission begun by Graham in a small town called Battle Creek in Michigan.
One of them, John Harvey Kellogg, set about devising cures for what he believed were the common ills of the day - constipation and masturbation. In Kellogg's mind the two were closely linked, the common cause being a lack of fibre, both dietary and moral.
Kellogg, his wife, and his brother William experimented in their sanatorium kitchen and came up with their own highly profitable version of Granula. The experiments continued, Kellogg's fame grew, and the first version of cornflakes was created - though they did not sell well.
Then Charles Post, a chronically dyspeptic entrepreneur who had been one of Kellogg's patients, developed his own precooked cereals. His genius was to harness the power of marketing. "The sunshine that makes a business plant grow is advertising," he said. He distributed tracts with his products with such encouraging titles as The Road to Wellville and cheerfully invented diseases they could cure. By 1903 he was making over a million dollars a year and Battle Creek had turned into a cereal Klondike. At one point there were more than 100 cereal factories operating in the town to satisfy the new craze.
John Harvey Kellogg was more interested in his crusade against sexual sins and bad eating than making money, but his brother William felt differently. Eventually W Kellogg persuaded his brother to set up a new company to manufacture cornflakes for the mass market. The two disagreed over whether to make their cereals palatable by adding sugar - anathema to John, needed to stop the products tasting like "horse-food" by William - and over who owned the cereal name.
In the end William succeeded in gaining control. The legacy of the cereal goldrush is still there in Battle Creek today, though the factories have mostly gone. In their place is Kellogg's Cereal City, a museum testament to the power of marketing.
The collection of early cereal boxes show that from the first they sold not just a meal but a way of life: Power, Vim, Vigor, Korn-Kinks and Climax are among the early brand names. Early packets also carried health claims that anticipate today's. "Will correct stomach troubles!" "Makes red blood redder!"
Crackley soundtracks from some of the first radio programmes in the 1920s record the sponsorship deals that helped the new medium and the cereal business grow: "Kellogg's cornflakes announces another thrilling new adventure ..."
Kellogg's also sponsored the singing Lady programme for children. In 1931 artist Vernon Grant created drawings depicting the characters Snap, Crackle and Pop, and cartoon merchandising was born. Giveaway toys were used too to attract children's loyalty.
Cereal advertising also helped shape early television. A chance meeting on a train in 1949 between the then chairman of Kellogg's and advertising man Leo Burnett led to a relationship that transformed the cereal market and TV ads. Burnett used "motivational research" to work out how to appeal to women and children, changing packaging colours to attract different audiences subliminally. With his help, Kellogg's broadcast the first colour TV programmes and commercials for children.
The Battle Creek Museum also states Kellogg's vision for the future. Under a section on "global expansion" it notes that 90% of the world's breakfast cereal is consumed in just a handful of countries: "The company has rededicated itself to reaching 1.5 billion new cereal customers around the world in the next decade ... and bringing about a fundamental change in eating habits."