*COMEDY* Behind the scenes in a marketing meeting

The Cinnamon Toast cereal sold by Walmart's Great Value tastes great, but the graphic design on the box is super hokey. My daughter and I tried to make sense of why a major company would approve of this box design and allow it to appear on store shelves. It features a VERY startled looking beaver, with panicked eyes, ripping a gigantic piece of cinnamon toast in half, while tessellating squares of cereal look on in the background. It would be menacing if it weren't so funny! Then, on the back of the box, the exact same beaver is in several other scenes: spot the difference, trivia, etc. And each time, the clip art is identical (with just the center of the eyes shifted, or the end of the paw shifted). So here's our best guess at how the behind-the-scenes marketing work could have lead to this design.

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Conference room, marketing meeting:

Director: (Takes a swig from extra large coffee) We need 20 cereal boxes designed by noon. Can you do it?

Artist: Do I have a choice?

Director: Look, if you have to copy and paste free clip art online, that's up to you, but we're on a time crunch here...

Artist (looking nervous): ....O..K....

Later that morning in his cubicle, the artist at work, a co worker looks over his shoulder. He sees the bug-eyed beaver ripping the cinnamon toast on the box.

Friend: Uh.... why does that beaver look so panicked?

Artist: BECAUSE I'M PANICKED!

Friend: (after a minute of watching) Are you not the least concerned that your emotional issues are coming through on your art? Remember this is a cereal for children.

Artist: No time to talk. I have 10 more boxes to design before lunch.

Friend: (Continues to examine) And all of the beavers in the game section look exactly the same. Did you just copy and paste those? And is this free clip art? Did you even pay for that image?

Artist: You know about our budget constraints....

Two months later, a letter arrives at Great Value headquarters, addressed to Risk Management.

Dear Sirs, I am a concerned mother writing in reference to your cinnamon toast cereal. My 5 year old already suffers from extreme anxiety. And recently after he ate your cereal sprinkled on a cup of ice cream and jelly beans, he looked at the beaver on the front (who appears to be having a panic attack) and he also had a panic attack. I'm hoping you will pay for his therapy as I believe the artwork triggered this incident. Also, I'm worried about the artist who designed this box. I would like to hear back from you assuring me that his mental condition is stable. I don't like to see unhealthy artists influencing my children.

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I told my daughter that "back in my day" some of the generic foods came with a white label with black lettering and no art at all. So I guess we can be "grateful" for the beaver with mental health issues because at least he was more entertaining than nothing at all.

And I did save a few cents. I mean, the name brand cereal very obviously pays their graphic designers way better. Our box of lucky charms has a cardboard village you can cut out. Super cool. But I don't exactly have time to cut it out or play with it. Plus I'm in my 40's so that would be weird anyway.