History Main / AdjacentToThisCompleteBreakfast

[[folder: Newspaper Comics ]]
* [[ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes Calvin]] eats cereal that takes five grapefruits and a dozen bran muffins to even out the sugar (and possibly more, since Hobbes trails off while explaining this).
[[/folder]]

* Bacon also got its start by getting marketed this way -- obviously, it was quite effective.

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.

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). By the end of the 1970s, though, [[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).

[-[[caption-width-right:350:The only thing with less nutritional content on the table is the cereal box itself.]]-]

[-[[caption-width-right:350:The only thing with less nutritional content on the table is the cereal box itself].]]-]

[-[[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 [[ExtremeOmnivore eat the silverware]].]]-]

[[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 [[ExtremeOmnivore eat the silverware]].]]

[[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 [[ExtremeOmnivore eat the silverware]].

%% Image kept on page per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1348415598081100100

[[quoteright:303:[[ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/minicalvin.gif]]]]

[[folder: Literature]]
* In 1987, in his newspaper column Tips for Writers, Creator/DaveBarry wrote:
--> "I am curious about the expression, "Part of this complete breakfast." The way it comes up is, my 5-year-old will be watching TV cartoon shows in the morning, and they'll show a commercial for a children's compressed breakfast compound such as "Froot Loops" or "Lucky Charms, " and they always show it sitting on a table next to a some actual food such as eggs, and the announcer always says: "Part of this complete breakfast." Don't they really mean, "Adjacent to this complete breakfast, " or "On the same table as this complete breakfast"? And couldn't they make essentially the same claim if, instead of Froot Loops, they put a can of shaving cream there, or a dead bat?"
[[/folder]]

* Bacon also got its start by getting marketed this way - obviously, [[BaconAddiction it was quite effective]].

* The E3 announcement of ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'' being ported to UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 and UsefulNotes/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''.

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're still hungry after eating a bowl of cereal, you don't cook yourself some bacon and eggs, or make toast. You just grab the cereal box and pour yourself another bowl.

Simple. Just set your sugar-laden product (in a nice place setting) 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?

[[AsbestosFreeCereal 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 delicious dessert that doesn't add anything to the meal but calories.]]

Compare to OverlyCoolPlaySpace, where a toy is shown in a cool play area to make you associate they toy with the unrelated surrounding area. The name is from a Creator/DaveBarry column, as explained in the Quotes subpage.

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're still hungry after eating a bowl of cereal, you don't cook yourself some bacon and eggs, or make toast. You just grab the cereal box and pour yourself another bowl).

Compare to OverlyCoolPlaySpace, where a toy is shown in a cool play area to make you associate they toy with the unrelated surrounding area. The name is from a DaveBarry column, as explained in the Quotes subpage.

Compare to OverlyCoolPlaySpace, where a toy is shown in a cool play area to make you associate they toy with the unrelated surrounding area.

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 delicious dessert that doesn't add anything to the meal but calories.

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). By the end of the 1970s, though, [[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).

Simple. Just set your sugar-laden product (in a nice place setting) alongside toast, bacon, 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?

-->--''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'', "Cheat Commandos...O's"