Line #41 Main/AdjacentToThisCompleteBreakfast


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6	[[caption-width-right:350:[-The only thing with less nutritional content on the table is the [[JustForFun/TropesExaminedByTheMythbusters cereal box itself]]. Unless you honestly intend to [[MetalMuncher eat the silverware]]...or the dishes.-]]]
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11	->''"New Cheat Commandos... O's sugar cereal is a delicious part of this complete delicious [[strike:nutritious]] breakfast! And take some vitamins, too!"''
12	-->-- ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'', "Cheat Commandos... O's"
13
14	Breakfast cereals aimed at kids allure their target audience with bright colors, cute cartoon mascots, and of course tons of sugar. But the parents are the ones who have to fork over the cash, and they're not going to invest $3.99 in future dental bills. So how can you, the advertiser, convince Mom that [[ChocolateFrostedSugarBombs Choco Woofers]] are actually [[BlatantLies harmless, even beneficial, and provide the vitamins and minerals that her growing child needs]]?
15
16	Simple. Just set your sugar-laden product (in a nice bowl) alongside toast, bacon, eggs, cheese, pancakes, fruit, vegetables, orange juice, milk, etc., and advertise that the cereal is an essential ''part'' of this complete breakfast. After all, if Choco Woofers are right at home amidst all those other wholesome foods, they must be perfectly healthful, right?
17
18	The claim is technically a legal requirement, but, like a StealthCigaretteCommercial, the companies have hidden the obvious beneath the implications. After all -- ''really!'' -- if you were sitting down to the princely spread of that complete breakfast, Choco Woofers would be the furthest thing from your mind. The only time you'd want to 'complete' a breakfast with Choco Woofers would be if you'd already eaten some and were still hungry, in which case you'd just grab the box and pour another bowl.
19
20	In other words, your Choco Woofers are "part of this complete breakfast" in much the same way that chocolate cake is "part of a complete dinner": as a tasty dessert that doesn't add anything to the meal but calories.
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22	Further complicating things, the nutrition panels on cereal boxes in the UK tend to include the vitamins and calcium from average milk on top of those present in the dry cereal by itself, but this is more reasonable. Canadian and US labels show both the pre- and post-milk values (usually skim milk).
23
24	Ironically, in the 1950s and '60s, having sugar added to a breakfast cereal was actually its ''selling point.'' You normally added your own sugar to your cereal anyway, and a pre-sweetened cereal meant you could save a step (and parents could know ''how much'' added sugar their kids were getting).[[note]]In addition, portion sizes were smaller in the 1950s & '60s, and Baby Boomers & Generation X children typically had a more active, "free-range" lifestyle than today's children do, hence they needed more energy. There is nothing preventing anybody from still adding sugar.[[/note]] By the late 1970s, [[ScienceMarchesOn sugar had become demonized]], so sugary cereals took steps to [[UnfortunateIngredients downplay their sugar content]]: They changed their names (e.g. from Sugar Smacks to Honey Smacks, or from Sugar Frosted Flakes to just Frosted Flakes), and they started splitting the sugar into multiple types so that "sugar" no longer appeared at the top of the ingredients list (e.g. instead of being "Sugar, wheat flour, oat flour, ...", the ingredients now read "Wheat and oat flour, sugar, glucose-fructose, ...", even though the contents of the box were identical).
25
26	Of course, it's possible the guy's [[RattlingOffLegal barely-comprehensible spiel]] actually meant "[[http://www.wordreference.com/definition/apart apart]] of this complete breakfast" -- hey, what's a little grammatical error between friends?
27
28	A newer variant of this is pulled by health products, particularly diet pills and nutritional supplements, where the ad claims the product will help you lose weight and/or be healthy when used "alongside diet and exercise"; of course, it's the diet and exercise that provide most of the effect, with the pills or nutritional supplements doing little if any actual work. (And they have a necessary legal obligation of their own, in that they are "not intended to prevent, diagnose, or treat any disease".)
29
30	A Subtrope of FalseCause, as correlation (a piece of fruit next to a bowl of sugary cereal) does not equal causation (the fruit and the cereal contributing equally to the nutritive content of the breakfast, so that if you took the cereal away you would lose half of the nutrition).
31
32	Compare to OverlyCoolPlaySpace, where a toy is shown in a cool play area to make you associate the toy with the unrelated surrounding area. The name is from a Creator/DaveBarry column, as explained in the Quotes subpage.
33
34	----
35	!!Examples:
36	[[foldercontrol]]
37
38	[[folder:Advertising]]
39	* Nutella got in trouble for making claims that it was healthy to eat. [[note]] or rather, continuing to make: when Nutella was first introduced in post-World War II Italy, its high energy content was beneficial to otherwise-undernourished children, and so it was healthy for them in that time & place. [[/note]] When the FDA analyzed the amount of sugar per serving in the product, they threatened severe consequences if they continued the claim. Now Nutella commercials do not ''say'' their product is healthy, but they tout its healthy ingredients (such as hazel nuts and low fat milk) without mentioning the ratio of these ingredients to the sugar content. The packaging is a literal example of this trope, stressing that Nutella is healthy as long as it's consumed with whole wheat bread, milk and a serving of fruit.
40	* Almost any sugary cereal aimed at children during The70s and The80s: Frosted Flakes, Froot Loops, Lucky Charms, Cookie Crisp, Cocoa Puffs...
41	** This educational film from the '70s lampshades this. A fictitious cereal called "Giggles" is shown surrounded with plates of oranges, bacon, eggs, and toast. [[https://youtu.be/pzEp65hNLq4?t=558]]
42	* Slim-Fast. Lose weight with a shake for breakfast, a shake for lunch, and a sensible dinner. People who eat sensible dinners don't need the product. And even better, are eating a sensible breakfast and a sensible lunch (and maybe having a sensible snack), so they're actually eating ''more'' than the Slim-Fast planners, but because of the sensibleness are slimmer already.
43	* Ensure shakes are a tasty nutritional supplement. The ads cannot make clear how.
44	* Belvita Breakfast Biscuits will provide [[http://www.bda.uk.com/conference/belvita_factsheet_update_Feb13.pdf "energy for the whole morning"]]... when combined with fruit, dairy and a drink.
45	* XLS Medical diet pills: studies have shown that taking them (while also eating less and exercising more) will result in weight loss.
46	* Frosted Flakes doesn't associate with other breakfast foods, but still tiptoes this trope - the commercials always associates eating them with a healthy activity like playing sports. "The taste of Tony's Frosted Flakes brings out the tiger in you ''([[BreakingTheFourthWall and you!]]'')." The activity aspect is to distract you from the fact that all you are eating is literally ''corn flakes with frosting on them'', presented next to exercise. Sometimes it even shows the child eating their cereal at a picnic table at the park the activity is about to take place in.[[note]][[FridgeLogic (Don't we all eat our breakfast at the park? And not a simple, easy to consume one like a bagel; but one requiring chilled milk and dishes to clean?)]][[/note]]
47	* Kellogg's was [[http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/05/30/187330235/no-frosted-mini-wheats-don-t-make-your-kids-smarter sued]] for false advertising claiming "A clinical study showed kids who had a filling breakfast of Frosted Mini-Wheats cereal improved their attentiveness by nearly 20 percent." This was 20% ([[ArtisticLicenseStatistics rounded up from 11%]]) over kids who had ''no breakfast'' at all. Obviously, the kids who had Mini-Wheats were more attentive because they weren't hungry, not because of the Mini-Wheats.
48	* The Nintendo Cereal System ad claims "The Nintendo Cereal System is a super part of this nutritious breakfast," featuring two bowls of cereal next to a glass of orange juice, a pitcher of milk, and two pieces of toast.
49	** The Urkel-Os cereal (made by the same company, Ralston) has ''Creator/JaleelWhite'' saying "''The Urkelized part of this complete breakfast.''"
50	[[/folder]]
51
52	[[folder:Comic Strips]]
53	* ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'': Calvin's favorite breakfast cereal is called "ChocolateFrostedSugarBombs", a breakfast "cereal" which requires five grapefruits and a dozen bran muffins to even out the sugar (and possibly more, since Hobbes trails off while explaining this).
54	* A ''Ren and Stimpy'' comic features a spoof advertisement for Powdered Toast, a fictional breakfast product. The sketch ends with powdered toast being part of an overly elaborate 'complete breakfast' including a cornucopia of fruit, and a roasted chicken.
55	[[/folder]]
56
57	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
58	* The ''Series/MythBusters'' decided to test the classic line "the box that cereal comes in is more nutritious" by feeding this type of cereal to lab mice and comparing the results to mice that had been fed the cardboard box. The segment will never air, [[GoneHorriblyWrong because one of the box mice ate the other two.]]
59	** They eventually aired a series of chemical tests (done in a motel breakfast area) that showed the cereal had more proteins, fats, sugars, and calories than an equivalent amount of cardboard box. They don't even ''mention'' the mouse test, though if you freeze-frame at the right point you can see one of the test mice in its cage.
60	** A rather amusing bit of the aired segment (near the end) showed them reading the box for the ingredients and nutritional information. Jamie asks [[StatingTheSimpleSolution why they didn't do that in the first place]]; Adam replies that while the nutritional information of the ''cereal'' was on the box, the nutritional information of the ''box'' was strangely lacking. Almost as if the box wasn't meant to be eaten...
61	* ''Series/NotTheNineOClockNews'' did a spoof advert for breakfast cereal, announcing
62	-->"Kelloggs Cornflakes. Part of a nutritious breakfast. Especially when sprinkled over food."
63	* Lampshaded sarcastically by Alan in ''Series/TwoAndAHalfMen'' towards jingle-writing brother Charlie:
64	--> '''Charlie:''' Hey, hey. Maple Loops is part of a nutritious balanced breakfast.
65	--> '''Alan:''' Yeah, if you eat it with a steak and some broccoli!
66	* In ''Series/LastWeekTonightWithJohnOliver'', John compares the ineffectiveness of "FDA Cleared" certification to this trope, saying that even heroin can be part of a balanced breakfast if you put it with a bunch of healthy foods.
67	[[/folder]]
68
69	[[folder:Video Games]]
70	* The [[UsefulNotes/ElectronicEntertainmentExpo E3]] announcement of ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'' being ported to Platform/PlayStation4 and Platform/PlayStationVita [[ParodiedTrope jokingly]] stated that the game was part of [[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DCKZZYiUwAEO7Xp.jpg a complete breakfast]] which consisted of cereal, waffles, and ''four glasses of orange juice''.
71	[[/folder]]
72
73	[[folder:Web Animation]]
74	* Parodied in the ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'' cartoon "Cheat Commandos...O's", where the titular cereal is shown next to a piece of chocolate cake, some caramels, and a glass of marshmallows, with the caption "Nutritious Breakfast", where the word "nutritious" has been crossed out and replaced with "delicious". There is also a subtitle that reads "Gallon of Ice Cream not pictured", and the cartoon ends up describing it as a "ridiculous breakfast" in the end.
75	[[/folder]]
76
77	[[folder:Western Animation]]
78	* ''{{WesternAnimation/Futurama}}'' mocked this trope in the "[[SugarBowl Purpleberry Pond]]" segment of the "Saturday Morning Fun Pit" episode. An in-show commercial for a breakfast cereal the fake cartoon was effectively advertising had this to say about it:
79	-->"Purpleberry Puffs are the sweetest part of your complete breakfast...along with juice, toast, ham, eggs, bacon, milk, cheese, liver, waffles, and a biiiiig horse vitamin!"
80	* ''WesternAnimation/OzzyAndDrix'' subverts this. In the episode "Triumph of the Supplements" the chocolate "Coco Nutts" cereal Hector eats actually contains healthy vitamins and minerals.
81	* ''WesternAnimation/ThePatrickStarShow'': In "[[Recap/ThePatrickStarShowS2E1ThePatrickShowCashesInStarGames The Patrick Show Cashes In]]", Patrick Show Cereal is part of a "complete breakfast" that has an absurd amount of food and would feed a family of four.
82	[[/folder]]
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