Are Pillsbury Toaster Strudels tastier than Kellogg’s Pop Tarts – ads I overanalyze

Pillsbury Toaster Strudel commercials often state that people prefer its taste over Kellogg’s Pop Tarts.

But what evidence is that claim based upon? I did a little bit of digging to find out.

(Also, a small side note: I have updated Friday’s post about the infinite series on Glenn Beck. I learned the equation was asked to a 12 year old genius, but I think he did the math wrong).

Background: a commercial from 2007

Youtube video: Pillsbury Toaster Strudel, 2007 commercial

Dialog from commercial

Pop Tarts can’t stand up to the delicious taste of Toaster Strudel.

Pillsbury Toaster Strudel: the one kids want to eat.

Remarks

The commercial makes it sound like people would choose Toaster Strudels over Pop Tarts in a taste test.

But at the time there were 39 flavors of Pop Tarts and only a handful of flavors for Toaster Strudels–so what exactly was being compared?

Kellogg’s fights back

In 2008, Kellogg’s took action against the possibly misleading advertising of General Mills, the maker of Pillsbury Toaster Strudel.

The case was reviewed by the The National Advertising Division (NAD), one of the investigative branches of the advertising industry’s self-regulation program.

The ruling partially sided with Kellogg’s in finding the claim of superior taste was not substantiated or sufficiently clarified. General Mills was told to modify their commercials. Here is the press release (emphasis mine):

NAD determined that the “can’t stand up … ” claim is an express claim that the Toaster Strudel brand tastes better than the Pop-Tarts brand and, as such, must be supported by a reliable taste test. NAD noted that it appreciated the many methodological safeguards used in the advertiser’s taste test, but was troubled by the scope of the test. Although there are 39 different flavors of Pop-Tarts, the advertiser tested only 9 of those flavors.

NAD found that a brand-wide preference claim wasn’t supported by the testing in the record and recommended that the advertiser either discontinue the claim, or modify it by limiting it to the products in each line that were actually tested. Similarly, NAD determined that the “one kids want to eat”: claim, in the context of the advertising, is a taste preference claim that was not supported by the evidence in the record. NAD recommended the advertiser modify or discontinue the claim.

General Mills disagreed with the ruling, but it said it would take steps to clarify the claims.

Current commercials

You can see the modification General Mills made to the Pillsbury Toaster Strudel commercials in the following ad:

Youtube video: Pillsbury Toaster Strudel, late 2008 commercial

Dialog from commercial

This is a Strawberry Pop Tart, and this is a warm fresh baked taste of a Strawberry Toaster Strudel. See the Difference?

Pillsbury Toaster Strudel: the one kids want to eat.

Fine print*: Based on testing comparable strawberry flavors

*This is probably in response to the NAD’s suggestion

Conclusion

The claim that people prefer Pillsbury Toaster Strudels rests mostly on the taste test of strawberry flavors. This is a much more limited statement, and it goes to show that people do not necessarily prefer Toaster Strudels over any of the currently 29 flavors of Pop Tarts.

I would love to see a comprehensive taste test that compared all the various flavors. I bet Pop Tarts would win, with something like Brown Sugar Cinnamon being the favorite (as this informal survey found).