Responsible marketing & advertising

We are committed to maintaining the highest standards for responsible marketing.

Our commitments include:

Responsible marketing 

Our commitment to meeting the highest standards for responsible marketing covers all forms of marketing and communications to all audiences globally in any medium (television, radio, print, online, mobile, social media, streaming platforms, podcasts, email, text/SMS messaging, in-store, out-of-home, packaging and any other form of media).

Regardless of the medium, General Mills will ensure that our marketing messages are inclusive and respectful. We will not produce marketing that is vulgar, insulting, or demeaning, or that undermines the role of parents and family or respect for community authorities. When placing paid advertising for our brands, General Mills will take steps to ensure that the advertising will air only on programming General Mills deems suitable, audience-appropriate and relevant for the brand.

We design all of our marketing to comply with all applicable law and we adhere to the requirements of the International Chamber of Commerce Framework for Responsible Food and Beverage Marketing Communications (ICC Framework), which applies to all audiences. Among many other things, adherence to the ICC Framework requires the following:

• Nutritional information and claims about health benefits in marketing communications should have a sound scientific basis.
• Marketing communications should not encourage or condone excess consumption and portion sizes should be appropriate to the setting portrayed.
• Marketing communications should not undermine the importance of healthy lifestyles and balanced diets.
• Where claims or terminology used in marketing communications might reasonably be interpreted by a consumer as health or nutrition claims, they should be supportable with appropriate scientific evidence.
• Copy, sound and visual presentations in marketing communications should accurately represent the material characteristics of the product featured, such as taste, size, content nutrition or health benefits, and should not mislead consumers concerning any of those characteristics.
• Food products not intended to be substitutes for meals should not be represented as such.
• Consumer taste or preference tests should not be used in a way that might imply statistical validity if there is none.
• Testimonials should be based on well accepted and recognized opinions from experts.
• Marketing communications should be clearly distinguishable such that there is transparency around its commercial purpose and the identity of the advertiser. 

Responsible Marketing Council

General Mills has established an internal Responsible Marketing Council (RMC). The responsibilities of the RMC include:

• Drafting and periodically re-issuing policies covering the Company’s responsible marketing commitments; and
• Ensuring full compliance with these policies through training initiatives and periodic marketing plan reviews.

Child Marketing Commitment

In all markets around the world, General Mills commits to refrain from primarily directing any marketing communications to children under 13. In the United States, we make this commitment as a founding and longstanding participant in the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative (CFBAI), which is operated by the Better Business Bureau.  CFBAI audits compliance with our commitment (our “CFBAI Pledge”) annually, confirming that none of our activities constitute marketing to children under 13 as defined by CFBAI’s Core Principles.  Outside the United States, we make analogous pledges (to refrain from marketing to children under 13) via other self-regulatory programs, such as the EU Pledge Program in Europe.  In any global market where such programs do not exist or where we are not a member, we nonetheless make the exact same commitment (applying our CFBAI Pledge as if CFBAI existed in that market).

Among other things, this commitment means that:

• We will not advertise our products on children’s programming, defined as any program for which 30 percent (or more) of the total viewing audience is under age 13;  
• We will not engage in any targeted digital advertising for our products where children under 13 are included within the target audience;
• Our products will not participate in digital or interactive marketing activities (including websites, blogs, games, apps, streaming, etc.) primarily directed to children under age 13; and
• Our products will not participate in any other form of marketing communication where the primary audience is children under age 13, including: sponsorships; product placements, integrations; cinema marketing; out-of-home (such as in places where children may gather); in-store promotion; using influencers, celebrities, or licensed characters for marketing communications; social media marketing; word-of-mouth or viral marketing; native advertising; mobile marketing; location-based marketing; promotion marketing; augmented reality marketing; and anything else not listed above.  

Though we would consider product packaging to definitionally fall outside the scope of “marketing communications where the primary audience is children under age 13,” our product packaging will nonetheless be consistent with the above rules to the extent that the packaging serves as a means of running any activity otherwise governed by the above list.  For example, product packaging will not be used to launch a branded augmented reality experience for children under 13.

For digital marketing programs, we use a variety of means to ensure that our marketing does not unintentionally primarily reach an “under 13” audience. These techniques include: designing creative so it primarily appeals to older audiences; using age-screening techniques to preclude child participation; reviewing available audience data to determine the demographics reached by media placements and third-party websites and platforms; and (when such data is unavailable) reviewing these third-party websites and platforms to ensure that they are not primarily directed to children under 13.

General Mills is committed not only to full compliance with all rules established by CFBAI and other pledges around the world, but also to our own commitments described on this page, many of which (such as our school commitment below) go beyond pledge requirements.

Advertising in schools

Regardless of the nutrition profile of the product, General Mills does not directly advertise food or beverage products in schools or school environments (including at school events) for children or teens, pre-K through 12th grade. Our commitment covers all forms of marketing (beyond the mere identification of the brand and product on menus and packaging). For example, we do not depict or display food brands, products, or logos on posters, signage, scoreboards, or school equipment, nor do we market foods by distributing product samples or branded merchandise, educational materials, or other materials in schools.

Privacy

General Mills is committed to acting responsibly and transparently to earn and maintain the trust of our consumers when collecting, retaining and using personal data. To meet this commitment, our activities will be guided by the following principles:

• Transparency. We seek to provide consumers with understandable and useful information regarding our collection, use and handling of personal data. This will include clear disclosures regarding the types of data we collect or receive directly or indirectly, how this data is used and shared, and how it is secured and ultimately disposed of.
• Choice. Alongside our disclosure of data practices, we seek to give consumers clear guidance on available means to withdraw or limit their consent to our collection, use and handling of their personal data.
• Data Minimization. Though we may collect personal data needed for the purposes we disclose, we will not seek to collect additional data for which we have no known or disclosed need.
• Access and Control. Where appropriate given the sensitivity of the data and where otherwise required, we will adopt measures to provide consumers with: (a) reasonable access to the data collected from them, to the extent practicable; and (b) appropriate means to request its deletion.

This is a general summary of our privacy principles. More complete details of our data practices with respect to data gathered in connection with any of our websites or applications can be found in our Privacy Policy disclosures on each site.  

Youth privacy

COPPA compliance (and similar compliance globally). As noted above, General Mills does not direct any marketing communications to children under 13, and therefore does not operate websites or apps for children. General Mills also operates in full compliance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”), as well all other applicable youth privacy requirements globally.

Email marketing. General Mills does not engage in email marketing directed to individuals under 18 years of age anywhere in the world.

Online behavioral advertising. As required by law, General Mills does not engage in online behavioral advertising techniques (i.e., collecting individual online behavior data on General Mills websites or apps and then using that information to direct online advertising to individuals on other sites) with respect to anyone under 18.

Compliance

We take compliance with the responsible marketing commitments on this page very seriously and endeavor to have a perfect track record of adhering to our commitments. Insofar as we are aware, and based on independent compliance reporting by CFBAI (regarding those specific commitments), we believe that we maintain 100% adherence to our commitments. Were we to discover or be made aware of any potential noncompliance, our Responsible Marketing Council is charged with the responsibility to investigate and take corrective steps, including training initiatives, designed to remediate the issue and limit the risk of recurrence.