Sesame Street Oatmeal FAIL

Inspired by the costume fail thread (though I was planning to post this before) I have to bring this up...

Earth's Best (that company that advertises/sponsors on Sesame Street) has Sesame Street character food tie-ins. Among them, is 2 different flavors of oatmeal featuring Elmo and Zoe


Now, before you read any more... just think to yourselves why this is wrong, and why it is indeed fail.....



That's RIGHT... it SHOULD be Bert on one of those boxes, considering it's his favorite food. It's like putting Bluto and Olive Oyl on cans of spinach, and putting Sylvester and Tweety on packages of carrots. You have a tie in with a show featuring a character who LOVES that kind of food, and yet, he's not featured on the box. I find that highly fail, popularity of the characters or not.

However they sure put the right character on these Banana flavored bars....provided he doesn't stick those in his ears as well.

I hate "organic". It's such a scam.

It seems Bert is just thoroughly unpopular.

Ahahahahahahahahaha!

Both Bert and Baby Bear should be the poster Muppets.

I mean, yeah Kid d.w. would have wanted ANY food with a Muppet on the box but if it was "Bert's oatmeal", that would be like "Cookie Monster's cookies" - not just any oatmeal but the one that the Oatmeal Lover eats! In fact, i'd even kind of question how good it must be if Bert isn't giving his "stamp of approval"

Well, everyone knows Bert doesn't like organic oatmeal. He likes the good, ol' fashioned processed stuff chock full o' preservatives and fillers!

just like mom used to make!

Well... overlooking Bert (they could have clearly put Ernie in the background too, since he's apparently the more popular of the duo) is pretty short sighted... Baby Bear (considering that Porridge can mean oatmeal, among other kinds of hot grain meals) has never really been a big player in merchandise. A Bean bag in the 30th anniversary assortment and a Tyco die cast car is about it. It's what I've been saying about Telly...he's in almost every episode, why isn't he featured on merchandise more.

If this stuff wasn't organic and therefore ridiculously overpriced, I'd entertain the notion of picking some of this stuff up, as I collect cereal and food packages with cartoon characters and stuff like that on it.

Not including Bert on Sesame Street oatmeal is unacceptable! The only thing that'd be worse would be if they marketed official "Invisible Ice Cream Cones" and put Murray on the packaging, or if they marketed "Sesame Street Pepperoni and Sardine Milkshakes" but included Elmo on the packaging instead of Oscar.

It is, what it is.

That's the sad truth of the matter, it makes more sense to us as adult fans because we've known Bert for years, and we know that Bert loves his oatmeal, so naturally, to us, it would make sense to put him on a box of SST oatmeal, as opposed to the likes of Elmo, Zoe, Murray, etc.

But again, Bert isn't that popular a character, especially to the younger crowd, so I think because of that, the product would sell better with Elmo gracing the front of the box even if he might not like oatmeal, as opposed to Bert, who would probably die of happiness at the thought of posing for oatmeal boxes.

But here's an idea though... you know how grocery stores have a selection of different bags of birdseed for people who like to sprinkle it all over their backyards in an attempt to attract various songbirds to their yard? Why not put Big Bird on a bag of birdseed? Even though he's not as popular as he used to be, he's certainly a lot more popular and would probably be a better spokesperson than Bert.

When I see Murray merchandise in any shape or form, I'll believe that. I highly doubt we'd even see a small figurine or plush in the future, unless they plan on making characters beyond the Elmo/Ernie/Abby routine. Heck, Telly didn't have anything but a couple obscure 90's PVC's and a Car and a couple bean bags. Baby bear less so, and they're on every other episode.

I can see why they went with Zoe and Elmo, it's all marketing... but Ernie is just as popular as Elmo, even when it isn't with Bert. I don't think any kids would have bought less oatmeal boxes if Ernie and Bert were on the package together. Bert alone may be asking too much, but the pair of them are as iconic as the green street sign. If they called it "Bert's favorite oatmeal" or something, had both of them on the package, I don't see why that wouldn't make sense. It truly is FAIL on so many levels. besides, they have a lot of Grover and Big Bird stuff too. If the stuff was only Elmo, it would be easy to overlook.

Telly had a plush like all the other characters from the 80s.

Lol, I never picked that up until you said something Dr. Tooth- good observation, ha- good point raised, too. How peculiar! Bert need love, too! D:

Couldn't have said it any better, not only because I'm a die-hard and nut.

Hey, character food brand recognition really makes a brand pop. They have cans of Spinach with Popeye on them, they had Garfield brand canned pasta... I don't see why calling it "Bert's favorite Oatmeal" and slapping Ernie on the package as well would sink sales any lower. They DO put Cookie Monster on their packages of cookies.

Donald Duck has his own brand of orange juice, the Flintstones have their own Post cereals, the Simpsons used to be the spokespeople for Butterfinger, Richard Dawson has his own brand of pickles... oh wait, wrong story.

Disney has their own brand of everything. I especially like the dried papayas with Donald Duck on the box for some reason.

Binky NEEDS to have his own brand of bananas though.

Yeah I know, talk about a monopoly.

Hellz yeah!

If Earth's Best has had trouble selling their tie-in oatmeal, it's pretty easy to understand why. Giving Elmo and Zoe more exposure on oatmeal packages makes no sense beyond pure marketing: "The parents know Earth's Best sponsors this show, so we'll put one male and one female Muppet on the packaging and hope the kids will ask for it." Come on, Sesame Workshop, you should've at least gone with the characters who've been established as oatmeal eaters: Bert's preference has been mentioned in a few new sketches, and Baby Bear's is easy to figure out from context. (How many kinds of porridge are that easy to get at a corner store, or sold in big cardboard drums?) Both Muppets are still popular with preschoolers, too; it's not as if Baby Bear has suffered from neglect recently. A tie-in, especially one aimed at children, should be more obvious than this one has!

Well, again, I'd say Baby bear is a stretch when it comes to merchandise, having only that one bean bag and a die cast car. Even though I'm sure kids know who he is if he's on every third episode. But other than the obvious Elmo money, there's no reason why they overlooked it. Big Bird, Cookie, Grover, and Ernie have their own little products, don't see why Bert would be that much of a turn off to kids. I mean, Sherri Netherland, maybe.