Getting up is the worst part about the morning. You're groggy, hungry, and you probably have to pee. And when it comes time to chow down on a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios for breakfast, looking into the box to receive a new Usher song is an overall positive thing—he's just Usher offering you music with your milk. But why is Usher—owner of eight Grammys, the No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 artist of the 2000s, the man who recorded 8701, and single-handedly gave crunk and grinding to 7th grade Bar Mitzvah after-party dances across America—only selling his new song in cereal boxes? Twitter was worried:
Usher is distributing new music via Cheerios box. I give recorded music another five years: http://t.co/RBf2YG3L4R
— Steven Hyden (@Steven_Hyden) November 11, 2014
Head of marketing @ Honey Nut Cheerios definitely graduated HS in 1999. 1st they redid a Nelly hit, now they're dropping Usher exclusives?
— Andrew Barber (@fakeshoredrive) November 11, 2014
"OH WOW A NEW USHER SONG COMES WITH EACH BOX OF HONEY CHEERIOS" - Usher loudly in a supermarket to no one in particular
— Desus Nice (@desusnice) November 11, 2014Is Usher in the cereal business now? This wouldn't be the first time an urban music icon did a little shameless promo before getting a serious cut of the action. Oh man, Usher-O's? IS THAT GOING TO BE A THING? I'm excited. Let's start piecing this together.
As Billboard noted:
"The track is called "Clueless" and comes amidst a prolonged wait for the singer's new album, UR."
No Usher-O's.
1.
Go on, Billboard:
"The promotion follows a commercial released in August that features Usher's "She Came to Give It to You." That clip shows Usher practicing his dance moves when the cereal's mascot, Buzz the Bee, joins him to discuss the healthy benefits of Honey Nut Cheerios via dance moves."
Wait, so Usher's doing ad campaigns with computerized humanoid bees? He must own like 51 percent of the cereal industry now or something. Gail Peterson, General Mills associate marketing director for Honey Nut Cheerios, tells Bloomberg: “We saw great results from the Nelly ad, as we hope to with the Usher ad. But at the core they have two distinct messages." Bloomberg filled in the gaps: "Nelly made the cartoon bee more hip; Usher is bringing the heat to cardiac wellness."
Bloomberg thinks this is a good idea, citing a research website that says that Usher polled as "strong among, basically, everyone," and that "African American, Asians, and Latinos identify him as talented and stylish." The article also noted that while cereal is "losing ground" on rival breakfast food items (bacon obviously being God), it's still a popular breakfast food amongst "people of color."
We get it. Usher, in this situation, is a product—one that brings in over $45 million a year—being used to sell another product. And we get that music is a business that is not doing particularly great. But is this what it's come to for an artist of his standing to make coin? Atlanta's Heroes x Villains expressed similar worries, but with fewer words:
“@billboard: New Usher Song Available Exclusively in Honey Nut Cheerios Boxes Sold at Walmart http://t.co/qaKVhc0zwb” what the actual fuck
— HEROES X VILLAINS (@WE_ARE_HXV) November 11, 2014Nonetheless, look out for Usher's latest single in your grocery stores soon. On the bright side, we're sure he's going to sell more boxes of Cheerios than Nelly.
