Smart Start, Stupid Finish

For at least eight years I have regularly eaten Smart Start cereal for breakfast. The first time I tried it, back in my Atlanta days, was simply because I loved the packaging and I thought that anything packaged in such a way could only taste good. It goes without saying that the cereal aisle in a grocery store is simply, and visually, cacophonous. Every color in the rainbow is represented through mascots, beveled typography, and giant spoonfuls of cereal — and the closest thing to white space is the milk dropping from the sky and into the delicious bowl you will enjoy if you decide to pick this, that or the other brand. Smart Start, introduced in 1998 by Kellogg’s, literally stood apart from the competition. Despite the obligatory shot of the product in situ, the box was the w