Michael Phelps is Back in the Cereal Game

Michael Phelps is no stranger to the cereal industry. Of course, any ‘athlete on a cereal box’ conversation must begin with Wheaties: the cereal famous for featuring athletes, and especially Olympic athletes.

In 2016, Phelps received a special Lifetime Achievement Box from Wheaties, which was his 3rd appearance on the box and the first-ever Lifetime Achievement box awarded by the General Mills-branded cereal.

But Phelps’ life as a cereal monger doesn’t stop there. This year marks a decade since he ended his campaign as a featured athlete on Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes and Corn Flakes brands. Phelps took a lot of heat from a certain segment during that era, where he had promotional deals with both the sugar-heavy Frosted Flakes cereal, and another favorite healthy-eaters target McDonald’s.

You can still buy an old ‘collectible’ Frosted Flakes box on Ebay for $4.65 (+ $5.45 shipping), no cereal included.

But Phelps has moved on to a 3rd of the major cold cereal brands, as he’s signed a deal to help promote the Quaker brand Life Cereal.

Phelps and his oldest child, 2-year old son boomer, are launching a nationwide contest where parents can enter their children for the chance to audition for a spot on a Life ad.

Phelps is a fitting candidate for the spot, given the brand’s first major ad campaign, featuring a young picky eater named “Mikey,” whose brothers exclaim “He likes it! Hey Mikey!” upon discovering that their young sibling is tolerant of the treat.

This is part of the latest pivot by Phelps in his post-swimming life from promoting brands which relied on ‘fueling him,’ emotionally or physically, as an athlete, like Under Armour and Subway, to ones more reliant on his new identity as a family man with 2 children, and a 3rd on the way. His advertisements have increasingly featured his family, including sons Beckett and Boomer and wife Nicole: a former Miss California USA.