Making a Cereal Killing...in Real Estate

jonp72 — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 19:40:34 -0800

In 1954, the producers of the radio show Sergeant Preston of the Yukon needed a gimmick to make sure its radio audience would watch the TV version of the show. Meanwhile, the show's sponsor, Quaker Oats, needed a follow-up to their ad campaign about how Quaker Puffed Wheat is shot out of guns. So Chicago adman, Bruce Baker (later the creator of Captain Crunch), dreamt up a wildly successful PR stunt for both Sgt. Preston of the Yukon and Quaker Oats by buying up one-inch plots of land in the Yukon (with legal assistance from future British Columbia senator George van Roggen) and giving away deeds to the land for free in copies of Quaker Oats cereal. (For a picture of the deed, click here and here) Although the ad campaign was phenomenally successful in the short term, it also had some long-term blowback. While looking at land in the Yukon, Bruce Baker developed minor frostbite injuries that later led to his leg being amputated. As for the land itself, it reverted back to the Canadian government in 1965 after nonpayment of $37.20 in taxes, but that doesn't stop owners of the Quaker Oats "deeds" from pestering the Yukon government about their land claims. Filmmaker David McDonald made the documentary, Cereal Thriller about the whole bizarre saga, which also raises interesting questions in property law. Ironically, although the Quaker Oats deeds have zero value in terms of property rights, their value as collectibles proved to be several times more than the stock price of Quaker Oats when it was bought by PepsiCo in 2001.

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Making a Cereal Killing...in Real Estate