Next month Jay Yelas will be on the Kellogg's Corn Flakes box for being the FLW Angler of the Year (AOY). The box will be sold only in Wal-Mart stores starting in mid-September, and will also have Team Kellogg's pros Clark Wendlandt, Steve Daniel, Marty Fourkiller, Jim Tutt and Alvin Shaw on the side panel.
"Featuring pro anglers like Jay Yelas, Clark Wendlandt and Jim Tutt on the Corn Flakes box exemplifies how FLW Outdoors, Kellogg's and Wal-Mart are working together with the country's top anglers to take professional fishing to the masses," said Irwin Jacobs, FLW Outdoors chairman.
"It is exactly the type of cross-merchandising the sport needs to continue its phenomenal growth. Thanks to this box, millions of people are going to start their day reading about some of the brightest stars in professional fishing. When that happens, everyone wins."
Fifth Cereal Box
This is the fifth year in a row that Americans can have breakfast with an FLW AOY. Here's a brief timeline:
> 1998 -- Denny Brauer becomes the first angler to be featured on any cereal box. Not only that, it's the Wheaties box, known for featuring the greatest athletes in all sports. In June 1998 FLW stated: "Wheaties' sponsorship of the world's richest bass-fishing series marks General Mills' first commitment to the vast fishing market that has more than 55 million participants." At the time, everyone in the bass fishing industry thought this was FLW's greatest coup.
> 1999 -- Rising star David Walker appears on the Wheaties box.
> 2000 -- Kellogg's takes over the cereal sponsorship of the FLW Tour. Clark Wendlandt appears on the Corn Flakes box with NASCAR driver Terry Labonte.
> 2001 -- Kevin VanDam appears on the Corn Flakes box.
> 2002 -- Jay Yelas appears on the Corn Flakes box.
Two notes:
> Although FLW AOY winners get their pictures on cereal boxes, the FLW AOY program is sponsored by Land O' Lakes. And Yelas is not sponsored by Kellogg's or Land O' Lakes.
> So far no B.A.S.S. AOY has been featured on any consumer-product packaging. But with BUSCH sponsoring the program next year, maybe BassFans will be able to have a beer with the 2003 AOY.
Analysis: N.Y. Times Story Highlights
Yelas' appearance on the Corn Flakes box was mentioned in an article about him that appeared in The New York Times sports section yesterday (Sunday, Aug. 18). That competitive bass fishing got any space at all in the ultimate urban, liberal paper -- which is now run by a Southern fly fisherman who has said in print that he doesn't much like bass fishing -- is a positive sign. But the writer, Pete Bodo, couldn't resist a few digs:
> "And should you have trouble attaching the word 'sport' to an activity that can be pursued sitting in a boat, with a rod in one hand and a cold beer in the other...."
> "In the best of all worlds, a stealthy bass pro would be fishing out of a slow-moving boat painted with a cattail-camouflage pattern, wearing a pair of khaki trousers and a pale-blue shirt. Instead Yelas and his peers are obliged to belt themselves into bass boats plastered with sponsor logos, including those of Alpo, Snickers and Craftsman, often in blistering primary colors."
But it wasn't all like that. For example:
> "As part of his reward as FLW Tour Angler of the Year, (Yelas) will have his picture on a special-edition box of Kellogg's Corn Flakes. No, it isn't Wheaties. But then the bass tour isn't the National Football League. Not yet."
Yelas quotes in the article:
> On trying to make it: "If you told me back then that there was more to life than fishing, I would have said you were crazy." Also: "I did it all on a shoestring, and it was a lot of fun. To my mind, this was like an Olympic sport."
> "We're following the path of NASCAR, with lots of different sponsors, often for the same competitor or team. It can be kind of confusing. Sometimes I wish we were more like golf. It would be nice to have just one or two big sponsors, and to be competing for really big purses. Let's face it: Tiger Woods can win as much money at one event as a good bass pro can earn in his entire career."
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Here's a detail of the Corn Flakes box.
