The Mixed Health Messages of Millsberry: A Critical Study of Online Child-Targeted Food Advergaming

Abstract

This paper offers a critical study of the contradictions of Millsberry.com, a General Mills (GM) advergaming website used to market GM's breakfast cereal brands to children. The paper takes a critical semiotic approach to argue that Millsberry.com sends players contradictory messages about health by simultaneously promoting nutritional wellness and consumption of high-sugar cereals, essentially conflating the two. Players on Millsberry.com create a virtual self (a Buddy) who lives in the fictional town of Millsberry, and a Buddy's health is tracked over time as players make nutritional choices for the Buddy. Health on Millsberry equates to eating from multiple food groups (nutritional balance) and eating only until full (caloric moderation). Yet both of these health messages are essentially undermined by play on the site. Nutritional balance is undermined by both the excessive promotion of high-sugar cereals and the differences between depictions of branded and unbranded foods. Caloric moderation is contradicted by digital advergames that operate on a logic of maximal consumption, by narratives of branded spokescharacters' endless appetites for cereal, and by giveaways of “free” boxes of virtual cereal that can be eaten by the Buddy in a single bite. The study concludes that such mixed messages about nutritional health are highly problematic, particularly given the alarming increase in diet and weight-related diseases among children.