Kellogg's

The story of this well-known beloved breakfast brand starts with two brothers who's relationship faltered and finally had a falling out. A devout quack doctor set in his ways, and a younger brother who no longer wants to be under his brother's wing duke it out to see who will rule the roost in the surreal cereal realm. We'll dish out the crazy account of Kellogg's on this week's episode of FYI! 

Transcript

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the story of this well-known beloved breakfast brand starts with two brothers whose relationship faltered and finally had a falling out a devout quack doctor set in his ways and a younger brother who no longer wants to be under his brother's Wing duke it out to see who will rule the roost in The Surreal serial realm we'll dish out the crazy account of Kelloggs on this week's episode of FYI welcome to for your info English you got it you got it hello hello hello and welcome to this another exciting edition of FYI for your English where we learn about a different topic every week and I'm always eager to hear from you guys FYI we've already gone over hundreds of topics and as I always say some of the greatest ones we've looked at have come from you guys so keep them coming and I'd like to remind you if you haven't raided the show or left a comment please do so right now especially if you love the show and you're planning on giving it five stars also I read all the comments so please let me know what you think and remember the more ratings the show has the more visible it is and thanks to you guys FYI this show is constantly charting and people listen to FYI all over the world the other day I was taking a look at the stats and we've got listeners on every single continent so thank you FYI thank you for making this little passion project that started in my daughter's bedroom into a very successful podcast I'm having fun and I hope you guys are having fun learning with me this has been a learning experience not only for you guys but for me as well and today's topic I wasn't too sure about until I started to look into it and I realized that there was so much more than breakfast cereal to talk about I'm talking masturbation castration and a feud between Brothers in fact Today's show has very little to do with cereal and I think you guys are going to get a kick out of it when I was telling my wife about it when I Was preparing the show she said what so I hope to get the same reaction from you guys FYI we've all heard of the brand Kellogg but I don't know if you know the Twisted story behind this popular Cal brand let's start off with the intro which is always sprinkled with tons of vocabulary I think you need to know I started off by saying the story of this well-known beloved breakfast brand starts with two brothers that's right and we're going to learn about those two brothers John and will remember those names cuz they're going to come up a lot in today's show and the word beloved I've heard people pronounce it beloved I'm going to say what the priest said at my grandma's Church dearly beloved we are gathered here today tomato tomato either either vas V these are words in English with two acceptable pronunciations well these brothers who started this beloved breakfast brand had a falling out their relationship started to falter was the word I used and to falter is to lose strength to weaken and finally it ended with a falling out and a falling out is a kind of fight but it's a very serious fight where usually people don't end up talking to each other ever again of course unless they make up but we'll find out more about that a little later on I started out by describing John a little bit I said a devout quack doctor and devout is not the word for this guy there are few people I have seen as religious air quotes religious as this guy and a quack doctor is one of these doctors that used to like make these treatments that could cure everything I think you say like kandoo or it basically means an unqualified doctor although he was qualified he was a medical doctor but let's just say some of his experiments or treatments left much to be desired and we'll take a look at that later as well so you've got one brother who's a doctor Dr John and then you've got his younger brother who is Will and will as I said no longer wants to be under his brother's wing and to be under somebody's Wing means that you don't do anything without them it's almost like a bird if you think about it if you're under your mother's wing it means you're protected it's almost like living in the shadow of somebody else as well and then I said they would duke it out and to Duke it out is to fight to see who will rule the roost and the roost is the nest does that word sound familiar a ro rooster their mascot and just remember a rooster in English what does a rooster say they don't say k they say cocka dooodle and roosters wake up at the crack of dawn but we use the Expression To Rule The Roost and then I said a bit of a tongue twister I said who will rule the roost in this surreal serial realm surreal is evidently surrealista serial isalis we usually say it in singular we don't say cereals and the last word I used was realm which is another word for world and then I said we'll dish out and to dish out is a word I used on purpose cuz it has to do with eating it's to serve something but it's also rep so we'll dish out the crazy account rento of Kelloggs now what's the first thing that comes to mind when you got guys think of Kelloggs you think of a wholesome healthy breakfast do you think of masturbation well it has something to do with masturbation perhaps you think of Battle Creek what Battle Creek Michigan the serial capital of the world and Battle Creek is where these two brothers battled it out ironically at one point there were over a 100 serial companies located in Battle Creek Michigan now they're are only three Kelloggs post and Ralston foods which are three very big cereal companies but you can go there and do tours and if you're a big serial lover like I am well you can go there and see where it all started but it's weird because you can really make cereal everywhere but for some reason the same way Detroit became Motor City this became the serial capital of the world so let let's meet the brothers a little bit more in depth we had John the older brother who was a doctor and he was a religious zealot okay I believe in faith and I think it's good to be religious but sometimes you can go too much you can go too far you can go to the extreme and then you get what you call extremism which nobody really likes even extremists are fighting against other extremists but he was a ser ious doctor he was a published doctor he was very well-respected and he was a health nut now you think of it and everybody's a health nut oh I can't eat my carbohydrates I've got to eat this too much protein whatever too much sugar salt people are healthc conscious these days well this guy was healthc conscious before his time but why did I call him a quack before like a witch doctor well some of his treatments could be considered tor torture nowadays and we're going to take a look at some of those treatments in the bonus episode we'll also see if these brothers ever made up a lases is to make up or if they went to the Grave holding a grudge guando RoR we'll also learn some fun facts we'll take a look at the dark side and a lot of the controversies that Kelloggs has faced and we'll take a look at some breakfast vocab as well all that in much more in the bonus episode and just a quick reminder every week you can get a bonus episode that's almost an hour of FYI every week plus you can get PDF documents with all the vocabulary and expressions that I go over and in one set of shows we can go over at least 400 different words expressions and structures but if you want to follow along well you can have PDF documents and then you can put yourself to the test and see how much you remembered that's what the worksheets are for but remember it's not about memorizing it's about exposing yourself to English every week and every week we look at a different topic so different vocabulary will come up plus if you're in our super duper level you can get a weekly review class with me we go over the key elements from each episode plus we have tons of fun and if you're in my highest level my Interstellar students you get all that and a private class with me and all that for around 60 a month it's a steal four group classes one private class tons of bonus content I don't know what you're waiting for honestly and you can join us for as little as €3 a month this is just a way of supporting the show and getting some bonus content and you know what if you can't afford to join us in the community I get that too we love you just the same but I want to take a moment to send a shout out to all my patrons thank you so much for laughing and learning with me and for being the best students a guy could ever ask for a shout out to all of my students especially my super duper students lenina Javier Paco Roberto Jose Maria and Mila and don't forget about my Interstellar students the ones who get a private class with me every month plus all that other stuff Carmen Issa Paco David and Edgard if you guys want to find out how you can join my Curious community and love learning English go over to patreon.com Alberto Alonso we're expecting you don't think of yourself as English students think of yourself as English explor or adventurers and every week we explore a different fascinating topic all with the excuse of learning English along the way I think we found the winning formula come join us and find out for yourself it's patreon.com Alberto Alonso now where were we all right I was telling you a little bit about each brother and by the way let's review these questions what do they look like what do they look like they have a beard they have long hair and what are they like is their personality so what was John like well I already said he was a religious zealot a famous published Doctor Who now in retrospect was a bit controversial a health nut and an abuser oh yes he was definitely an abuser and the person he abused the most his little brother will he treated him like like dirt like he was his servant I guess they didn't talk about how you're supposed to treat your brother in his church Brotherly Love isn't that what it's all about well John didn't love his brother at least it didn't show and I guess we should add that he was a eugenicist as well Eugenics is that uh science quote unquote quack science where they try and determine a master race does that sound familiar Nazi Germany Eugenics so John was not really a good guy not the kind of guy I would want to grab a beer with but don't worry he wouldn't want to grab a beer with me either because according to his religion which was the seventh day Adventists the body is a temple well I think in the Bible anyway they say your body is a temple you have to be careful what you put in it but they took this to the extreme and he believed sugar fatty foods greasy foods and things like this would cause people to get excited to get aroused and possibly even touch themselves I told you it had something to do with masturbation him and his religion believed that diet was a very big part part of you getting into heaven you didn't only need a healthy mind but you needed a healthy body oh and the irony of his relationship with the Seventh Day Adventist Church who paid for his medical degree by the way well the irony was he was ultimately expelled for misuse of funds well either way after they had paid for his medical degree he was chosen to be the head of the Battle Creek sanitary and I know what you're thinking is this a place where they lock crazy people up it sounds like it doesn't it no this would be more like a modernday spa or Retreat and it was located in Battle Creek obviously it was called the Battle Creek sanitarium they called it the sand it was very famous and it was a huge spa resort Retreat where John personally took care of each patient and it was Swanky and luxurious at its height they were treating around 12 to 15,000 patients a year including Henry Ford Amelia airheart and Thomas Edison so everybody was flocking from all around to go see Dr John at his Battle Creek sanitarium he could cure them and he used all kinds of therapy including hydrotherapy and some less conventional ones which we'll talk about later so what does all this have to do with cereal well John remember believed that eating was an important thing in fact he believed that you had to chew your food at least 40 times before swallowing it so he was constantly experimenting with different foods that he could feed the guests at this sanitarium and they played with different oats they made something called granula which sounds like granola doesn't it well it is and he was trying to make food that people didn't have to chew very much that was easily digestible that didn't have any sugar in it and wouldn't cause you to think dirty thoughts and he was pretty successful there because people were flocking from all around and even though the food might have been a little bit Bland it was supposedly healthy and they weren't necessarily there for the food they were there for the opulence for the groundbreaking treatments so that's John that's the doctor brother the older brother then we've got will the younger brother who is sick of being under his older brother's Wing now he was not a doctor but he was a businessman a natural born businessman an advertising genius but he was also treated like chopped liver by his brother we looked at that word in the supermarkets episode chopped liver is something unimportant his brother constantly mistreated him and he took it his brother would dish it out to use the word we used before and he would just keep taking it some stories that I read were that he made his brother jog next to him when he was riding a bike and take notes as he dictated them he would also make his brother go into the bathroom after he had gone to the bathroom room and analyze his feal matter and take notes remember this guy had an obsession with food which ultimately turned into an obsession with poop I told you guys this wasn't only about cereal today but we'll get to the treatments SL tortures later well while they were working at the Battle creeks sanitarium brother will started experimenting with the dough they had made because initially these were more like bars like cereal bars but they were really hard in fact some of the patients had reported breaking their teeth on them so will began to Tinker he decided to add sugar and salt and things like this and his brother John wouldn't hear of it he thought this was absolutely unaccept able and it was against their mission and supposedly the original recipe for cornflakes was an accident they had been working with all kinds of cereal and toasting it and things like that and then one night supposedly will the younger brother left some dough out and he didn't want to throw it out because he was a bit Frugal he didn't want to waste any dough dough pasta Dino okay well he didn't wasted and overnight the dough began to sour and the next day when he found it he said you know what I'm not going to throw it out I'm going to see if we can make something from this dough and something he noticed was that the dough started to flake when it was left out overnight and this made these flakes that everybody knows and loves today and again he added salt and sugar because he said brother these are bland I'm telling you if we find The Sweet Spot we can sell a lot of these we can make a killing and again his brother was adamant and he said no way Over My Dead Body are we going to add sugar and salt well that sugar was the original bone of contention I think you say la Manana de la discordia in Spanish they couldn't come to an agreement and will offered to buy the patent off his brother on February 19th 1906 the Battle Creek toasted cornflake company was founded the rights were bought by brother will as I said will wanted to make bank but John Harvey Kellogg no no not him he cared more about his mission than prophets and so his brother went to work he added the sugar and the salt and it exploded cornflakes was a huge hit and will spent a lot of money on Advertising he really thought about the marketing and the image and in 1909 he renamed the company the Kellogg toasted cornflake company in 1922 it became the Kellogg company but it was a huge success will was right they could make a killer if they just adjusted the recipe by 1909 Will's company produced 120,000 cases of corn flakes daily and John obviously resented his brother's success he had always treated him like a peon and in 1906 he filed suit against Will's company for the right to use the family name well that suit led to a counter suit which led to another lawsuit and for over 10 years they were battling each other in court see I had no idea about this dark part of the story successful product but Brothers relationship totally broken and then it wasn't until December 1920 when the Michigan Supreme Court ruled in favor of will but I want to explain what a game Cher this was before breakfast Cal people had very hearty breakfasts these greasy breakfasts which were usually leftovers from the night before Oh and you had to heat up the stove who wants to eat cold black pudding morilla or cold mashed potatoes or pork chops well this is what people used to have for breakfast of course you got to think people were working on farms back then agriculture was the big thing so people needed to eat a Hardy breakfast breast but now all of a sudden you could take these crispy flakes you could pour them into a bowl effortlessly and add a little milk and you were eating within seconds and of course this was really important when people left the farms and went to factories all of a sudden they didn't need such a Hardy breakfast and according to our friend the doctor these Hardy breakfasts and Hardy food in general was making them think erotic thoughts they were getting all hot and bothered as we say I guess that's what it is I eat too much greasy food oh and just remember we don't normally say hot if you use it in the expression I'm hot and bothered yeah but normally if we want to say in that sense we say and here goes your song I'm Hy Hy honey honey tonight I'm honey honey honey honey tonight night so this invention revolutionized breakfast forever and to this day when you walk down the aisles at your Supermarket you can see Kelloggs everywhere but did you know Kelloggs also owns Pringles and many other products you're all familiar with as we know they are leaders in the industry and many of their products are household names products such as Frosted Flakes special okay Rice Krispies my personal favorite because with Rice Krispies you can make Rice Krispie treats with marshmallow oh now I'm getting hungry then you've got Corn Pops poptarts and their mascots are some of the most famous mascots out there what are the mascots names for Rice Krispies snap crackle pop my daughter knows that one cuz she loves Rice Krispies all right here's an easy one what what's the slogan for Frosted Flakes they're great and it was said by Tony the Tiger show them you're a tiger show them what you can do the taste of Tony's frosted flak brings out the tiger and you and you it's funny how some Jingles will stay with you forever I'm 80 years old and I love Kellogg's frosted Blakes Brave adults are coming forward to challenge the notion that Frosted Flakes is just a kid cereal I eat them I love them and I don't care who knows with that extra Crunch and milk that frosting just right they have a taste adults can love every bit as much as kids go ahead Shirley you can do it I love them thank you what Morgan you say Frosted Flakes have the taste adults have grown to love they're great let me give you some statistics before we wrap up the first episode as I just mentioned they sell so much more than just breakfast cereal frozen waffles vegetarian meat substitutes and other convenient food options and even though cereal has been less popular these days because people are more healthc conscious they still produce over a million cereal boxes a day they have factories all around the world and you can find their products in more than 180 countries Kellogg's products are made in 18 countries and let's see if you guys know where Kellogg's largest Factory is it's located in Trafford Park greater Manchester it's also the location of its UK headquarters there are other corporate office locations in Chicago Dublin and Shanghai and despite having a million options for breakfast the seral aisle is still a favorite for many people even if it's just for the Nostalgia I mean who doesn't know that rooster oh and I'm going to tell you how the rooster got its name and why they chose a rooster but that's in the bonus episode plus we're going to see if these brothers made up or if they went to the Grave holding a grudge and I'll let you guys be the judge who's the real Kellogg who's the one who made their last name a household name to this day well we'll learn more about both brothers and so much more in the bonus episode of today's FYI