Marketing and advertising
General Mills has had child marketing guidelines in place for more than 30 years, and they are updated regularly by the company’s Child Marketing Review Council.
As an industry leader, General Mills maintains high standards, especially in advertising that reaches children.
In July 2011, reflecting the increasing popularity of social networking websites, General Mills updated the guidelines to be even clearer about what is and isn’t permitted when communicating with children under the age of 12.
The updated sections of the guidelines spell out that General Mills will not use its own websites or other communications to encourage children to participate in third-party social networking sites that are inappropriate for children under 12.
For the past seven years, we’ve required our marketing and legal employees to review the guidelines. And for the fifth year, those employees were required to complete a quiz to demonstrate understanding of the guidelines.
