General Mills’ Larabar Ads Highlight Real Ingredients, No ‘Ticky Tacky’

General Mills’ new national television advertising campaign for Larabar goes where few multinational food companies dare to go.

General Mills' Larabars which comes in 21 flavors and uses nine ingredients or less in their bars. Benjamin Chasteen/Epoch Times

General Mills’ new national television advertising campaign for Larabar goes where few multinational food companies dare to go, and it makes sense.

In the process of promoting the clean ingredients of Larabar, it is critical of products with artificial ingredients, of which Minneapolis-based General Mills has many. Of the corporation’s $17.6 billion sales in fiscal 2015, its natural product sales accounted for less than one-thirtieth.

It is true that the company that got its start in 1880 with Gold Medal flour is still best known by Americans for its Lucky Charms, Cheerios, Pillsbury, Haagen-Dazs, Old El Paso, and Green Giant brands.

But General Mills has actually seen its highest growth within its natural and organic product lines, which include Larabar—double-digit growth for three years, with no end in sight.

In fact, General Mills is now the fourth-largest natural and organic food manufacturer in the United States, according to the company’s 2015 annual report.

It looks like a paradox, that General Mills would support a campaign that knocks food dyes, syrups, and preservatives.