Forget the breakfast of Champions, Michael Phelps, by choosing to hawk Frosted Flakes, promotes the triumph of capitalism. Endorsements….they’re GRRRRRREAT! Not that there’s anything wrong with that. In fact, I’m happy for Phelps and hope he makes a gazillion dollars. But some people are clucking about Phelps’ choice:

You better eat your . . . Frosted Flakes?
Olympic legend Michael Phelps will appear on boxes of the Kellogg’s brand sugar cereal, drawing sharp criticism from health experts worried about the message he’ll be sending to children across America.

“I would not consider Frosted Flakes the food of an Olympian,” said nutritionist Rebecca Solomon of Mount Sinai Medical Center.

“I would rather see him promoting Fiber One. I would rather see him promoting oatmeal. I would even rather see him promoting Cheerios.”

The announcement yesterday that Phelps, 23, winner of a record eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympics, would grace Frosted Flakes and Corn Flakes boxes instead of the traditional athlete’s choice of Wheaties left many perplexed.

Frosted Flakes has three times the amount of sugar as Wheaties and 1/3rd the fiber.

Oh brother…had Wheaties or Fiber One offered Phelps an endorsement deal and if any human under the age of 50 ate those cereals and therefore were big sellers, I’m sure he would have chosen them. He got a Frosted Flakes deal because Frosted Flakes is a huge seller and so can have a huge marketing budget and pay guys like Michael Phelps the big bucks.

As for the empty calories that are Frosted Flakes. If the 50 million kids who eat the cereal get off their collective butts and get into a swimming pool to burn those empty calories, it will be worth it. Had Phelps endorsed Fiber 1, he’d be inspiring like two kids. His mug will be in every house in America and kids who heretofore thought about playing Nintendo might actually want to join the swim team. One can hope, anyway.

The endorsement is a win-win. Phelps makes lots of money. Lots of kids consider swimming. Sounds like a sweet deal.

Cross-posted at MelissaClouthier.com

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