General Mills reply changes

[Nick(Ia)]

I've received a reply to my 2nd email to General Mills regarding their collaboration with the nutz at HSUS. This response, while still not good enough, shows some additional sensitivity to their inappropriate choice of corporate companions. Keep on em! Remind them that you still see General Mills/Golden Grahams supporting HSUS in the stores!


Dear Mr. Nichols:

Thank you for contacting us to express your concern with the "Pets and their Celebrities" calendar currently being included with Golden Grahams cereal. The calendar promotes the benefits - and responsibilities - of pet ownership

We did not anticipate that a calendar promoting responsible pet ownership would be in any way controversial. Our focus was on the message the calendar conveys, about the wonders and benefits of being a pet owner, and reinforcing the responsibilities of pet ownership. We felt the calendar was an excellent vehicle to communicate that topic. In no way was it intended to convey that General Mills is against hunting, fishing or farming. General Mills is not anti-hunting or anti-fishing. We have even honored champion fisherman on the Wheaties box, most recently in August of 1999.

But we also now realize that some of the views espoused by HSUS, from whom we obtained the calendars, are not shared by an important number of customers and consumers. That point has been driven home by consumer contacts like yours, and we are taking your views to heart. Your views will certainly be shared with the decision-makers involved in this and future decisions regarding our promotional tie-in partners.

Again, thank you for taking the time to contact us and make us aware of your feeling on this matter.

Sincerely,

Vanessa Penns

General Mills
Consumer Services

[Fshngyd]

I received the same E mail yesterday.

[Otter]

Nick,
Please post the email address at General Mills, so that I can give them a little "Otter bite." Thanks.
Otter

[Phil T.]

I'll bet they confused HSUS with the Humane Society of America. The anti-hunting/anti-fishing organization chose their name well. "City folks" wouldn't notice the difference in the organizations without some detailed study.

[waterfowler]

All I can say is ATTA BOY guys/gals. It just goes to show together we can make a difference. I got the same original BS response about a week ago. Now it looks like they've had enough notice from us to at least change their response. Hopefully they'll pull this campaign just to show they are really listening to us!!!

[ufda]

I also received the original message. Glad to see they changed the content and the tone in the second message. I doubt however that they will pull the present campaign as they probably have too much inventory in the pipline. But do to people like the ones on this site, I bet they think long and hard about the next campaign.
Way to go fisher folk!

[Nick(Ia)]

I've heard those otters have sharp teeth! :-)

http://www.generalmills.com/corporate/comments/

[Walizz 1]

I got the same response but it was signed by Eric Metzner. Hope they mean it.

[Matt D]

Here's a website that was passed along to me earlier this week that might be of interest. It shows where alot of these groups get their money from and how they are tied together. http://www.activistcash.com

[Schnauzer]

The General Mills response reminded me of the flak they received a couple years ago when they put fishing tournament champs on their Wheaties boxes. At the time, PETA raised a big stink but General Mills went ahead with the box anyway and have done so again since then.

[PW]

I also received the same reply about a week ago.