Kellogg's plan laser branded flakes to fight fakes

by guardian.co.uk - 15/10/2009

"It's being put about by their PR team that Kellogg's are to individually laser etch each of their cornflakes with the company logo."

We've all become used to ever more sophisticated and cynical advertising from the food industry as companies have cottoned on to the fact that tinkering with loved brands or unexpectedly removing favourite chocolate bars from the shelves has a desirable viral marketing effect which they can respond to by 'bringing back' the product. I blame Coca-Cola. All this trickery means that we tend to view most of the releases and announcements that come from our PR friends with an even healthier dose of suspicion than even our former jaded paranoia.

So what to make of this jaunty little announcement from Kellogg's yesterday? "Now you'll always be able to tell your Corn Flakes from your corn fakes!" with a twitpic of Kellogg's flakes individually branded with the company logo?

The story is, apparently, that the company has new laser technology ready to toast the tiny logo onto a zillion little flakes a day: "We've established that it is possible to apply a logo or image onto food, now we need to see if there is a way of repeating it on large quantities of our cereal. We're looking into it," the company's food technologist, Helen Lyons is reported as saying. When we phoned for confirmation we were told that she's "on holiday at the moment". Hmm.

Shortly before throwing her Blackberry to the wind and hotfooting it out of Kellogg's HQ to pack her holiday suitcase, Ms Lyons told the Metro, Mail and Telegraph that "giving our golden flakes of corn an official stamp of approval could be the answer". At last technology has made it possible to confound the makers of all those damned inferior flakes that would masquerade as Kellogg's. (Top marks, by the way, to the Daily Mail reader who commented "I'd like to see them do it to Rice Krispies".)

Presumably the technology isn't that ready at all, given it hasn't been used in the photograph above, which is, instead, ahem, digitally manipulated. The phone call to Kellogg's HQ this morning revealed little in the way of facts, and we're now awaiting developments on the laser cornflake in the form of a response from whichever unlucky sod is standing in for Ms Lyons.

So. Do you welcome this important development in food branding technology? Would you be reassured to see, as you tuck in of a morning, positive proof of the processing provenance of each and every flake? And is this really the best use of food technology? Like the blue star on a bottle of broon which tells you when it's at the right temperature, should cornflakes change colour when they've gone soggy to warn you off? Instead of worrying about their branding, what should Kellogg's be doing?

More Details: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2009/oct/14/kelloggs-cornflakes-laser-fake