They're GR-R-REAT!

Michelle Obama is ecstatic! Sesame Street denizens Elmo and Rosita will soon be appearing in your grocery store produce department! Stickers and cardboard cutouts will bear their likenesses, and this, Michelle says, will encourage kids to eat their fruits and veggies. She's so excited about this "unprecedented step" (I guess she doesn't know that in the 1950's, Kukla, Fran, and Ollie advertised ice cream and the Mickey Mouse Club endorsed Mars candy bars and Little Orphan Annie had her likeness on Kraft caramel advertising and Vince Lombardi appeared on Nestle Quik boxes and Huckleberry Hound and Snagglepuss graced boxes of Kellogg's cereals), that as she made the announcement, she pumped her fists in the air.

I liked Tony the Tiger when I was a kid, so I asked for Frosted Flakes. I also developed cravings for different cereals that had  prizes in the boxes. It turned out that I liked Tony much better than the cereal he promoted, and I suddenly lost the cravings for the prize cereals we bought as soon as I opened the box, got the toy, and had the first bowl. We ended up with uneaten cereal on the shelves, and as a financially struggling family, we couldn't afford that. I suspect it will be much the same for the families of the little tykes who like Elmo much better than they like carrots and spinach.

"Forget the cookies." The Dallas Morning News; October 31, 2013; p. 4A.