Breakfast cereals and philanthropy: do they mix?

[Bradstreet]

So I was pouring my shreddies, and reading the back of the packet, as one does. It invited me to collect tokens, and take them to my local school, where tearful urchins would snatch them from my hands, crying 'Hooray, now we can have books! Thank you, breakfast lady!'. I know Shreddies are not the first or only people to run some kind of philanthropic voucher scheme, but I always feel very uneasy about the mix of vulgar capitalism and the education system, especially when it's companies like Coke or Walker's encouraging children to scoff unhealthy food in order to get some kind of reward for their school. Am I being too sensitive? Should we be glad that kids get books no matter where they come from? Or does this smack of social engineering by big corporations? If they want to contribute to our social wellbeing, shouldn't they just pay more taxes? And if they have spare money sloshing around, shouldn't they just cut their prices?

 

[Haven]

As I see it; In a market driven economy in order to maintain prices after increased taxes, profit margins are maintained by cutting costs i.e. cheaper packaging, ingredients and distribution/manufacture (i.e. offshore). So charging more taxes either drives companies away (to avoid tax) or results in your kids eating floor sweepings whilst they read their shiny book.

I don't for a moment think that these companies are philanthropic (individuals are, but companies are not). By tying in a feel good factor such as book token/sports equipment/school computers etc makes the buyer feel better about themselves which tends to tie into sales.

On the flip side, if the offer is there to use tokens from a product that you purchase anyway then its a waste not to use it.

Thats a long winded way of saying yes it is social engineering, but then so is school and so are books but thats a fight for another day and not necessarily a bad thing in-case you were reading that into my thoughts

 

[Taffy]

To look at it simply, schools are benefiting from Shreddies. Those who care about schools (parents etc.) will therefore be more likely to buy Shreddies and give away the tokens. End result is that the school benefits, Kelloggs make more sales and the kids get a load of sugar in the morning to kick-start them. Everybody is a winner It's good, simple capitalism that has a positive knock-on effect to the community. In my eyes, it doesn't matter what the motivation is, so long as the outcome is good.

 

[Nanor]

Fail, Taffy. Shreddies are Nestlé, not Kellogs! *sigh*

 

[decky101]

Kelloggs* Double fail, Nanor.