Smart Start Journal
Kellogg's

What could possibly be sweeter than Lucky Charms?

It may be hard to believe, but the humble, hard-working flakes of Smart Start cereal somehow manage a very slight per serving sugar advantage over the comically overloaded marshmallows and encrustalated wheat things that dominate Lucky Charms.

And thus, Smart Start is established: a "healthy," vitamin-laden flake-based cereal marketed to professionals and businesspeople, sweet to the point of self-parody.

It works. Personally, I love the stuff. So when Smart Start revealed the creation of a special Smart Start personal journal for aspiring Smart Start personality types, nothing could stop this reviewer from mailing away two box tops and then eagerly checking the mailbox every day for a month.

The style of the journal is simple. Beside the blank, journal-type pages lie quotes including Chinese proverbs, T.S. Eliot and Abraham Lincoln. Nestled beside the quotes lie the main graphic elements of the journal: Successory-style shots of runners, sunsets and waterfalls, all liberally treated with fuzzy, inspiration-generating Photoshop effects.

The problem with the Journal, unfortunately, lies in the contradiction between the class of consumer it intends to reach (professionals) and its method of distribution. To whit: Kellogg’s mails you the damn thing for free within 6-8 weeks of receiving your two Smart Start UPC symbols. Moreover, its binding (think: pamphlet) is not a clear indicator that one has reached a new level of achievement in the professional world.

As a venture into the world of business accessories, the Smart Start journal couldn’t have cost Kellogg’s more than a few thousand dollars. But if they’d just bind the thing in leather and sell it for $49.95, it could be a brilliant triumph of marketing over common sense.

Like the motorized tie rack.

— James Norton (jrnorton@flakmag.com)