Commercial Break: Smaller Portions for a Smaller You

Broadcast: 24 August 2012
Program: Early Start
Network: CNN
Conglomerate: Time Warner

Advertiser: Fiber One
Conglomerate: General Mills
Product: Low calorie cereal that’s supposed to help you defecate better

We open on a street in Anywhere, USA where a middle aged woman, whose body is obscured but who looks to be in achievable shape, pulls up next to the Fiber One 80 Calorie truck.

Having her in a minivan with no kids in it was a nice touch.

She immediately begins badgering Joe Everyman truck driver, in a friendly but demanding way, about whether or not the cereal actually has only eighty calories. 

It’s a baseball cap with no logo whatsoever.  These people may be in the Matrix.

Joe Everyman just drives the truck, so he doesn’t know if it really only does have eighty calories.  Setting aside the fact that calorie counts are notoriously inaccurate, the Fiber One website does have some enlightening information Joe Everyman could’ve shared with her:

Cereal	Calories per Serving	Serving Size	Calories per Cup
Fiber One Original	60	0.5 Cups	120
Fiber One 80 Calorie	80	0.75 Cups	100
Fiber One Honey Clusters	160	1 Cup	80
Fiber One Nutty Clusters & Almonds	180	1 Cup	90
Fiber One Raisin Bran Clusters	170	1 Cup	85
Fiber One Caramel Delight	180	1 Cup	90
Fiber One Shredded Wheat	200	1 Cup	100

So, assuming the calorie counts are accurate (which they probably aren’t), the advertisement isn’t directly misleading you about the number of calories per serving.  But even against its own products, Fiber One 80 Calorie is tied for second most calories per cup of cereal, because the only way General Mills got that stuff down to eighty calories per serving was by shrinking the portion by 25%.  Minor mendacity is a healthy part of a balanced breakfast.