Shreddies opens a Toronto ‘Wheat Dispensary’
Good, good, whole weed Shreddies. Well, sort of.
The Post Cereals brand is cleverly riffing on the seemingly never-ending rise of pot shops in Toronto—more than 320 since 2020 alone, according to Bloomberg—with a pop-up store on Queen St. W. called the “Wheat Dispensary.”
Mimicking one of the hundreds of pot shops that dot the city, the store’s window features a sticker inviting would-be patrons to “Rediscover the original edible.” Inside, patrons can request one of the four Shreddies flavours with the milk of their choice.
Carrying the pot shop metaphor even further, each of the four cereals is presented as a “strain,” including “You Got This” (the original flavour); “Smiley Face” (Honey Shreddies); “Avant-Garde” (Shreddies Brown Sugar + Granola) and “That Good Good” (a combination of the original and honey flavours).
Amy Bernstein, senior marketing manager at Post Consumer Brands Canada, says the goal is to contemporize the legacy cereal brand and help it stand out in the crowded cereal category. The campaign was developed by Toronto agency Publicis.
“Shreddies is an iconic and beloved Canadian breakfast cereal that’s been around for over 80 years,” she says. “The cereal category itself is quite saturated and cluttered, and we’re always striving to gain top-of-mind awareness, and we thought this is an activation that will get Torontonians excited and drive a little bit of buzz” (ha!).
Cereal has long been a favourite food of pot smokers, but Bernstein says the pop-up activation had to be approved by the very top levels of Post’s leadership team. “The stance is that marijuana and cannabis use isn’t really a taboo topic anymore, especially in the hip, trendy, downtown Toronto area where our pop-up is, but by no means are we encouraging or promoting the use of cannabis,” she says.