Hunter Kemper Joins Wheaties All-Star Development Team

With 85 years of fueling athletes, Wheaties , “The Breakfast of Champions,” announced today that it has teamed up with an elite group of champions, including Peyton Manning, Hunter Kemper, Kevin Garnett, Bryan Clay and Albert Pujols, to create the next evolution of the iconic whole-grain cereal.  These elite champions worked with Wheaties food scientists and leading sports nutritionist Dr. John Ivy to create a new cereal formula to best help meet their nutritional needs, with the specific goal of fueling athletic performance.  This panel narrowed the selection to three possible cereal formulas, and everyday athletes will help choose the final product, which will be unveiled on 09/09/09.
The new product will live alongside the original Wheaties product.

Beginning today, the five champion athletes will be featured in a six-part web series on Wheaties.com/evolution that provides an unprecedented, insider account of the process behind the development of the new evolution of Wheaties. From Dr. Ivy’s first meeting with the participating athletes to discussions about what it takes to become a champion, the webisodes serve as a behind-the-scenes guide, culminating with a trip to a General Mills plant in Minneapolis.

“As someone who loves Wheaties, it was truly a privilege to be given the opportunity to help develop a new formula that will be enjoyed for generations of champions to come,” said football champion and three-time MVP Peyton Manning.  “It was a unique experience to work alongside these other great athletes in the development of this product, and we were able to give our insight into what athletes really need to fuel performance.”

“Our champions all are highly decorated in their respective sports and embody the Wheaties brand qualities by being winners both on and off the playing field,” said Dan Stangler, marketing manager for Wheaties.  “Wheaties has been fueling champions for 85 years. By teaming up with today’s leading champions, a leading sports nutritionist and everyday athletes, we have an unprecedented opportunity to take advantage of all the nutritional advances since Wheaties was launched 85 years ago. This allows us to create a new Breakfast of Champions that will help fuel championship performance from pro sports facilities to sand lots to board rooms.”

The three potential Wheaties formulas not only taste great, but were designed with the appropriate combination of nutrients working together to help provide both long-lasting energy and fuel for athletic performance.  Each cereal formula was based on a nutritional profile with athletes’ needs in mind, including endurance and energy.  The first option is a lightly sweetened crunchy whole wheat flake with granola and crispy rice and a touch of cinnamon and honey.  The second option is a lightly sweetened, hearty whole wheat flake with cinnamon clusters, and the third option is a lightly sweetened whole grain wheat and bran flake with fruit and crunchy almonds.  The top three formulas are being taste-tested by a select group of everyday athletes, including readers of Men’s Health magazine, who are helping determine the winning formula, which will be unveiled on 09/09/09.

The new product will be different from Original Wheaties, but will not replace it.  Together, the two products will make up the evolved and expanded Breakfast of Champions product portfolio.

Born out of a fortunate mistake in 1924, original Wheaties was created when a health clinician accidentally spilled a wheat bran mixture onto a hot stove.  The result was tasty, crispy wheat flakes that became known as Washburn’s Gold Medal Whole Wheat Flakes.  A year later, the cumbersome name was shortened to Wheaties.  Baseball legend Lou Gehrig was the first athlete featured on a Wheaties Box, when he appeared on the back cover in 1934.  In 1958, American champion pole-vaulter Bob Richards was the first person to appear on the front of the package, jumpstarting the phenomenon of “being on the Wheaties box,” which has since been graced by some of the greatest athletes of all time, including Bruce Jenner, Walter Payton, Mary Lou Retton, and many others.  To view a complete timeline of Wheaties Champions, visit www.wheaties.com.

Click on the links below to learn more:

http://www.wheaties.com/evolution/

http://www.wheaties.com/evolution/#/episode1

http://www.wheaties.com/evolution/#/episode2