It's one thousand nine hundred and forty eight and in Battle Creek Michigan Post stop executives are in the conference room munching on the latest creation to come out of the company's experimental kitchen sugar crisp. It all started a post salesman, noticed an unfamiliar cereal in a Pennsylvania grocery store something called Ranger Joe, a bunch of puffed wheat coated. Sticky, sugar and packaged in a cellophane bag the salesman had never seen any cereal like it before and neither had the posts. Office team. Most is the nation's number two cereal maker, but it's itching to take over the lead from Kelloggs. Maybe just maybe This would be the ticket

so general manager, Clarence Eldridge, directed the companies food scientists, create a similar sweetened cereal. Now this team are trying it for the first time after being his bold Eldridge wipes the milk from his lips with a napkin and grants well This certainly passes the taste test what's market, research, say post marketing, chief answers everything points to sugar, Chris being very popular kids. Love. Sugary. Food and parents see sweetened cereal as a way to stop their children from piling sugar onto their breakfast. We should get it their fast before Kelloggs or general. Mills gets wind of Ranger Joe, but posts nutritionist. Isn't so sure, this this go against everything we stand for. We make health food, remote the nutritional benefits of breakfast cereal. This

This is like candy, Eldridge nods. He two fields easy about breaking with posts. Helpful origins, okay, but, like we said kids putting sugar on their cereal anyway, I mean at least this is a healthier option. The nutritionist waffles apps, I I guess what we're really doing is swapping one carbohydrate for another by starts for sugar, so Suppose it's true that the nutritional value could be much the same at the end of the day. In that case, we should go ahead. Any objections. The room goes quiet. While no one disagrees, they know they're about to cross a line. Until now, Post hasn't strayed far from its origins in the 19th century health movement. Now it's about to open Pandora's box that will force the entire industry to

business wars is brought to you by the capital. One Walmart rewards card earn five percent back at Walmart online, two percent at Walmart in store, restaurants and travel, and one and everywhere else when you want to. Do you need the capital one Walmart rewards card? What's in your wallet terms and exclusions apply. From one I'm David Brown and this, is business.

On the last episode. Will Kellogg defeated his brother and post cereals to make Kellogg's market leader mean General Mills use radio to sneak into third place and not Quaker Oats into fourth, but now number two player post. Is about to revolutionize the serial world with its new Sweden Puffs. This is episode three. Sugar rush, It's nineteen, forty nine, in Chester, Pennsylvania go boom, Look serial pumping guns is reverberating through the Ranger Joe Factory. It's been a decade since Jim Rex created his honey puffs after his own. Underfunded. Ranger Joe business flopped Rex sold the rights to a Philadelphia, stockbroker named Moses Burger. Since then, the fifties

something burgers been working hard to make a success of the sugary cereal. He steadily built sales across the northeast by stuffing free toys into the packaging and touring grocery stores to offer shoppers free samples, he's also built. This small with modern factory, with a sixty strong workforce, and now these dreaming of the national he his desk jotting down plans for bringing Ranger Joe into the big time. When there's a knock at the door, the the factory manager enters holding a newspaper in his hand, he's got a worried, look on his face. Boss, you seen this the actually manage your hands burger. The newspaper burger stairs in harbor a huge ad for a new candied serial called post sugar crisp. He knows range Joe doesn't stand a chance against posed post is part of general foods. The giant

find Jello Maxwell House in Birdseye. How can he possibly compete? burger decides he needs to find a fire for his cereal business before his small time operation is crushed. And it's a wise move, because posts going all how to make sugar crisp a winner post general manager. Clearance Eldridge has been watching the rise of general mills with alarm. General mills. Cereals, cheerios, kicks and wheaties are sucking up posts. Market share Eldridge, needs a home run with sugar crisp to put distance between it and the or three cereal manufacturer so post is purchase. New printing press Is they can package sugar crisp in colorful box is decorated with cartoon bet. It's amber facing the latest home entertainment sensation too. Television.

Eldridge, remembers how general mills use radio to make rapid headway in the 30s. Now he reckons most can do the same with tv, the first move to make a big splash by sponsoring the hottest Sci FI show on tv stand by for that, video and there's video ranger brought you today by post sugar crisp agree, NEO cereal. You can eat freeways as a serial, it's dandy or snacks, it's so handy or eat it like candy, post sugar, crisp, the mix of cat, Video bright packaging and cartoon bears pays off within months. Sugar Crisp is still ling, shelf space from rival cereals and sending posts, market share, sort. Thrilled by the gains post, floods, the market with more candy, kissed breakfast options and that's got Kellogg's

Chief, executive Watson, Vanderploog worried it's nineteen denied an vanderploog is on a train to Chicago he gazes out the window with two things: on his mind. The first is whether Kellogg should follow Post example and start adding sugar to its cereals. It feels the of the company's past, but the big bucks being made by sugar crisp or very hard to ignore the second In his mind, is whether to buy into the expensive in strange new world of tv advertising is, he considers his options of portly. And takes the seat opposite Vander glances at the happy looking guy. His suit is creased. His ties skew their cigarette ash smeared on his pants, but when the guy opens Briefcase and takes out a copy of advertising age, well Vander,

x intrigued. Excuse me do. You work in advertising. Yeah got my own agency in Chicago, but then Can I ask you a question: shoot my name is Watson. Vanderkloot, the chief executive of Kellogg's we're thinking a lot about getting into television advertising, but it's expensive what. I think, of television, the dishes ad man leads forward with television you can your people's total attention is the future. It's worth the money, They spend the rest of the journey discussing tv's potential when and pulls into union station. The admin gets up and hands vanderploeg a dog eared business card. Here's my card, Give me one of your products and I'll show you what I can do as the yeah man walks off better examines the card. The man

He just met is: Bill Burnett, who is destined to become the advertising legend. The Marlboro Man and the Pillsbury Dough Boy a few weeks later. Vanderploog calls Burnett He's got a serial form to promote Kellogg's Soja Brunette wants to it in with Kellogg's, but corn soya is a turkey of a product promoted as a Bodybuilding breakfast is high. Protein blend of shredded corn, grits and soybeans has been languishing on the shelves since one thousand nine hundred and forty five but that knows, this is his shot at landing. The biggest add account in the cereal business He orders his people to go hunting for a tv show that can boost corn soy sales. The spring of nineteen Fifty and a Burnett ad executive is at Grauman's chinese theater in Hollywood, he's watching it

black and white western starring TIM Mccoy, as stretch around in his steps in the ad man realizes this famous cowboy is the first Salesman for a muscle, building cereal shortly after Mccoy's Kellogg sponsored show makes its debut. As time now for the Real Mccoy TIM Mccoy doesn't work wonders. But he does lift corn soy is sales, but for cal the real lesson here isn't the size of Mcquay sales. Musto is the fact that tell can sell just about anything even Corn soya Kellogg's, so impressed it appoints Burnett. As its ad agency, the alliance is well time to, because, after months of colonel debate, the company is following the money in jumping on the pre sweetened cereal bandwagon and

net, more than delivers for Kellogg's. He pairs its new sugar corn pops, Popular television show the adventures of Superman he brings in pop. Television host art linkletter, to turn all brands image from a cure for constipation to a health. Food burn also persuades Kellogg's to treat it cereal boxes like colorful billboards by creating catching boxes that leap out at shoppers from the shelves and then he caps it off by giving dogs a star for the ages. It's one thousand nine hundred and fifty one in battle. Creek Kellogg, CEO Watson, Vanderploog, is reducing Burnett to the company's latest creation, A cereal made from sugar dusted. Corn flakes reckons Picking can outsell post sugar crisp we're calling it frosted flakes it uses

technique. We developed that makes the sugar on the flakes look frosty. I want to to an animal to help, sell it like those sugar, Bear's post uses on sugar crisp. But better, can you do that? So I created the jolly green giant. Didn't not leave it to me a week later Burnett's, creative team in Chicago or bouncing around ideas for what animals should promote sugar frosted flakes they're stage, so uh how about polar bear too obvious too obvious What about an elephant? They agree that possibility. Someone else suggests kangaroo, then a copy hits on another idea. I tiger nice, nice. Ok anything else, I knew what wet new. It's like a wildebeest, the

new and the elephant don't make the final cut, but the team can decide between the Kangaroo and the tiger. So they let the public choose. They hire group of former Disney animators to create ads for both characters and then pursue Kellogg's to launch sugar frosted flakes with two boxes one with the kangaroo, the other with a tiger in nineteen fifty. Do the two animals go head to head on tv Katie, the Kangaroo arrives pure wedding around on the screen, with a Joey in her pouch and a yellow sun hat on her head kangaroo hopping skipping bounce around. You think I wouldn't put the light then tending

is tony. The tiger a big chat with the diamond shaped head razor sharp teeth in a red neckerchief where Katie is elegant and graceful he's strong and gregarious, and if you want to find out just how good Kellogg's sugar frosted flakes are way. Tony tell him tony great, like frosted, Katie, the kangaroos, dainty dancing can't stand up to Tony the tiger's memorable roar and neither can post sugar crisp sugar frosted flakes quickly become. The best, selling sugared cereal and for general mills, marketing team sugar, frosted flakes success is an unexpected gift and that's. Cause. It's been war inside the company's Minneapolis headquarters. Ever since Sugar Chris burst onto the scene, the marketing name is eager to join the sugar rush, but the food

Searchers have been refusing to make a sweetened cereal due to their qualms about the pre sweetened cereals, nutritional value, but with Tony the tigers talking this cereal aisles, a showdown is inevitable. The marketing chief hands out charts showing how sweet and cereal is boosting Post Kellogg's market share. Just look at the figures were being left behind start making pre sugared cereal or we die. I don't seem to have any problem with it. So why should we as usual, food research chief digs in his heels We've never needed sugar before what the company do we want to be We should be sticking to making healthy cereals with added vitamins, but the food chiefs. In a losing battle ever since the sugar craze took? of General mills, cereal sales have gone soggy. Sales of wheaties are falling and kids, who once loved kicks

affecting too sweeter rivals after hour, hours wrangling. The marketing team finally gets its way in nineteen fifty three general mills joins the candy crowd to make up last time it rushes out as many pre sweetened cereals as it can it. Sugar frosts kicks to create sugar jets. It mixes sugary, wheat and corn pops to spawn your smiles and it conjures up a fruity, tasting colored cereal called tricks, Despite the sugar, nothing it creates, sticks by late nineteen. D General Mills is a distant third to Kellogg's in post and that's when Quaker Oats send pull general mills down a peg by, launching one of the biggest giveaways history, you prepare we can for this big money morning meeting. Why did they schedule?

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When you're on a plane, you can enjoy an hour free, WI, FI on Gogo, enabled flights plus unlimited text and picture messaging and voicemail to text, learn more at t, mobile dot com, slash business. It's I am on a Monday in late, one thousand, nine hundred and fifty four and Quaker Oats add boss, Bruce Baker. Can't sleep pace is the kitchen of his home in the Chicago suburbs. Thinking about the in Tatian he's due to give at nine o'clock sales of Quakers Sugar, puffed cereals are tanking overshadowed by the sweeter offerings of its bigger competitors. Bakers this is one hundred am to suggest a sales, boosting promotion they can run in January, but he's got nothing zip nada, diddly squat.

And if he goes in that meeting without an idea he'll be unemployed by the afternoon he checks his watch six hours to go. And then and then from out of nowhere an idea pops into his head. At nine hundred, am bakers in Quakers, downtown headquarters, juiced up by a bucketload of coffee. He takes a deep breath, launches into his presentation? I want do a tie in with the sergeant Preston of the Yukon radio show. His colleagues aren't overwhelmed. Sponsored this canadian Mountie adventure show for years. It's also offered plenty. Sergeant Preston, themed giveaways, promoted cereal, including brass police, whistles and an electronic, or actor that resembles a Geiger counter, but Baker not finished The free gift will be land lane

and let's put a deed inside boxes of puffed, rice and puffed wheat, Entitling the owner to a piece of Yukon Gold rush territory, one square inch every pack, I'm telling you people will love it the His stare at Baker has he his mind. A company lawyer breaks, the silence sounds like a legal nightmare. Also, what Hell could anyone do with a square inch of land grow? A flower baker shakes his head, you're missing the point. It's about the sense of owning something in this mysterious place. You'll probably never visit. I, the Uconn Right who the hell is ever going to go up. There anyway,

it's winter, one thousand nine hundred and fifty four and bakers in Canada's Uconn territory he's on a boat cruising down. The? U Conn River from Dawson City he's come to see the slice of the Klondike region, the Quaker plans to give away kids colder than the coldest Chicago winter tip of his nose is already frostbitten. Next to him is the Corp lawyer, who is not thrilled at being made to join Baker on this trip suddenly the boat slams into rock and tips on its side freezing water rushes onto the boat, the mountie I driving the boat yells at the executives, Bail, the water, The water will sink half an hour later they're back on their way. Exhausted, wet, And even colder, finally, the Mount

stops the boat on the river's West Bank and they disembark them out. He checks his map and compass. Okay, this way the trio tramp, deep snow for a few minutes and then the mountie stops well. Here we are. Baker stares at the wilderness, Quakers about to buy in a madcap quest to sell more cereal there's nothing here. Just rock snow in riding wagons left over from the gold rush days. No wonder these! Nineteen acres only cost one thousand dollars Baker takes out his Kodak camera? To take a publicity photo, nothing happens. It's so cold the camera stopped working inside the three men share: the loan chocolate bar they brought with them before returning to the boat, as they head back to Dawson City Baker, turns to the lawyer

Yes, your v vetoing the giveaway after this debacle, the lawyer glares at Baker think I'm going to come all the way up here. Yet Biden nearly drowned in freezing ice water, so I can go back to Chicago with nothing to show for it. Of course, we're doing this in You worry one thousand nine hundred and fifty five bakers Motion launches on this sergeant, Preston, radio show gold discovered in the? U Conn a stampede to the Klondike in the wild race for rich is back to the days of the gold rush with Quaker puffed, wheat and Quaker puffed rice, bringing you the adventures of Sergeant Preston had his Wonderdog Uconn king as they meet the challenge of the Uconn.

The promotion sparks a frenzy, shoppers Strip stores of Quaker Puffs Quakers factories can't stuff land deeds into boxes fast enough to meet demand. Some people, select multiple deeds, hoping to amass enough square inches to claim a plot big enough to stand in it's one of the biggest sales promotions in US history. What those rushing to buy, Quaker Cereal, don't know is that the deeds are worthless Quaker realized. It would be insanely expensive to formally register millions of square inch plots of land, so it didn't bother and when the company fails to pay a thirty seven dollars property tax bill a decade later. Canada reaper This is the land. Even worse the moment the campaign ends the extra sales banish Quaker ends.

One thousand five hundred and fifty five facing the same problems it had a year before, but quakers, not the One struggling third place. General mills is drowning under Kellogg's on slot. Uggs, has nearly fifty percent of the market four times as much as general Mills, Kellogg's is also using its dominance to conquer the new supermarkets. It's pursue getting grocery stores to give it cereals, prime position on the shelves. It's even convince supermarkets to arrange cereal by manufacturer rather than product type, so that Kellogg's corn flakes ever sit next to a competitor. General mills is not ready to wave the white flag just yet. Instead, it's going to fight back. By reinventing how it sells its cereals, with the help of a moose flying squirrel a rabbit and a leprechaun

on the next episode serial taps into this. Space Race WAR breaks out over corn flakes in general. Mills learn some new tricks, from one this. His business wars. We hope you enjoy this episode and we invite you to subscribe on Spotify Apple Podcast, Google, podcast teacher, I heart radio or what ever find podcaster served. You'll, find a link on the episode notes, just tap or swipe over the cover art. It also see some offers from our sponsors and we hope you'll support our show by supporting them. If you like what you've heard. Tell your friends how to subscribe and give us a five star rating while you're at it. Another way you can support. This is by answering a short survey at one.

Free dot com, slash survey, an it would be sweet if you could tell us what business war stories you'd like to hear a quick note about conversations you've been hearing, we can't know exactly what was said with this. Dialogue is based on our best research. I'm your host David Brown, Tristan Donovan, wrote this story. Karen Lowe is our senior producer and editor dot. Hyams edited this story. Our editor and producer is Jenny. Flower Beckman, sound design by Bay Area, sell our executive producer, is Marshall Louis created by Ernan Lopez or wondering.