Forget Wheaties. The smiling face of America’s new golden girl is getting her own box of Corn Flakes.
Kellogg’s yesterday announced that it had tapped Gabby Douglas — the first African-American to win Olympic gold in the individual all-around gymnastics competition — to be featured on special-edition Corn Flakes boxes hitting store shelves this fall.
Following an appearance on the “Today” show, the bubbly 16-year-old proudly posed holding her special-edition box.
Sports-marketing experts said the Corn Flakes deal for the Summer Olympics sweetheart is just the beginning, adding that she stands to potentially earn more than $100 million in endorsement deals.
“You are looking at the opening of the floodgates,” said Kevin Adler, president of Engage Marketing, a sports-marketing firm for Fortune 500 companies.
“And the opportunities are endless. She’s only 16 and can compete again in 2016” at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The gymnast already has a deal with Procter & Gamble.
Kellogg’s, an official sponsor of the US Olympic Committee and USA Gymnastics, was able to sign Gabby up for Corn Flakes before she could be courted by Wheaties maker General Mills.
It was the second consecutive Summer Olympics that Kellogg’s swooped in and landed the Games’ most marketable star. In 2008, Michael Phelps got his own box of Corn Flakes after capturing eight swimming gold medals in Beijing.
Wheaties had long held the cereal-box monopoly on Olympic-star sponsorships.