Kellogg's Donates Michael Phelps Cereal to Food Bank; Stoner Boxes End Up on Ebay

Posted by Isaac Fitzgerald, AlterNet at 12:10 PM on March 12, 2009.

We all know the story: incredible athlete and Olympian Michael Phelps gets caught taking a break with a bong thanks to a thoughtless facebook photo and next thing you know: media frenzy. While some where quick to point out the ridiculousness of the fiasco, others, like Kellogg's, decided that overreacting was definitely the way to go, announcing that they would not be renewing Phelps' hefty endorsement contract. Bad for Phelps (who has gotten a lot less flack for doing something far worse), silly of Kellogg's, but, apparently, good for a food bank in San Francisco:

[...] that left only one problem: what to do with the boxes of Corn Flakes and Frosted Flakes bearing Phelps' toothy grin. The answer seemed pretty clear two weeks ago when the local Food Bank took delivery of nearly 2 tons of the cereal.

"So, though Kellogg's and their star spokesman hit a patch of rough water, San Francisco's hungry just got thrown a life preserver," Food Bank spokeswoman Gayle Keck wrote in an e-mail.

"Food Bank officials said their patrons had no problem with the marijuana controversy." Note to Kellogg's, the same would have been true of the American public. I mean, not to point out the obvious, but Kellogg's sells a lot of sugary cereals ... that are advertised by animals ... cartoon animals ... that talk. For christsake, who do they think is buying all the Froot Loops? But I digress.

Anyways, that's it right? End of story? Of course not. Apparently some of the patrons at the food bank decided to turn the "controversial" cereal boxes into a quick buck:

The cereal flew off the shelves.

Now we're wondering where those boxes were flying off to. A reader pointed out that boxes of Kellogg's Corn Flakes and Frosted Flakes with Phelps' photo on the front were for sale on e-Bay.

Although it is possible they were on the market before the story appeared, there is no doubting that there were some recent additions this week. And while the older entries were selling for $5-7, one of the new ones had a price of $19.99. That, of course, includes shipping.

Tagged as: marijuana, san francisco, pot, michael phelps, food bank, weed, kellogg's, foolish, corn flakes, frosted flakes, froot loops