Cereal boxes in Mexico look very different than they do in the US, and TikTok is shocked
It’s no secret that food packaging looks different from country to country. But one dad on TikTok was recently visiting Mexico when he came across an interesting difference he couldn’t help but share: In Mexico, cereal boxes aren’t marketed to kids as much as they are in America. Instead, they come with health warnings.
According to Chad Scott (aka @the_poster_boy), he and his family swung into a Walmart in Mexico when he made the discovery.
“So in the US, we have a lot of cereal boxes that have cartoon characters on [them],” the dad begins. “Well, check out what they look like here.”
On a box of Lucky Charms, Scott noticed a large sticker covering up the friendly leprechaun whose face appears just above a colorful bowl of the marshmallow-filled cereal.
“Not only do they cover it, [but] they talk about the calories and they make it big and bold, and then in the top right, it ways ‘excessive calories,’ ‘excessive sugars,’ and ‘excessive sodium,'” the dad shared.
It’s not just the Lucky Charms box that gets the treatment; it applies to all cereal brands.
“Can you imagine a world where you see Frosted Flakes without Tony the Tiger on them?” Scott asked while moving down the cereal aisle.
This small but meaningful difference couldn’t help but strike a chord.
“It’s really interesting to see how they really take it serious about how they expose what’s in food,” he continued, “and they don’t want cartoon characters to influence kids to get things that are unhealthy.”
The TikTok has since prompted a manyeople to comment — many of whom were pretty impressed.
“Way ahead of us,” one person commented.
“Love this concept,” added someone else.
Many others pointed out that this is only “impressive” to Americans since other countries have been much more mindful of how food products are packaged and marketed.
“It’s pretty common in latin american contries,” one person shared. “that same logo and policy started in Chile, I think Ecuador has it too and Argentina is evaluating it.”
“In the UK they classify American cereal as candy and put it in the candy aisle,” another person shared.
Several others also brought up different health-conscious tactics that countries outside of the U.S. do differently.
“At restaurants [in Mexico] they don’t have salt at every table you have to ask for it, plus they have signs advising to not eat salt for your health,” one commenter said.
“I feel like they know the cartoons are the attention grabbers that prevent you from noticing foods can be bad for you so they cover them,” someone else noted.
It’s definitely all part of a strategy — and one the U.S. could certainly stand to learn from, considering the current rates of childhood obesity in America, which have been on the rise for years.
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