by
CNN
—
Just in time for the holidays, artist collective MSCHF is releasing its latest piece of playful art: a giant 930-calorie, $19.99 fruit loop.
MSCHF, a Brooklyn-based group of artists, is no stranger to making headlines documenting their provocative and irreverent releases. Most recently, they operated an ATM at Art Basel Miami Beach that displayed a public leaderboard of users’ bank balances, ranked from highest to lowest.
Their previous projects have also played with modifications of “premade” items, such as the unofficial Nike shoes they released in collaboration with Lil Nas X, triggering a lawsuit and a recall.
The unauthorized mass fruit loop is the group’s latest joyful experiment with consumerism. As the name suggests, it’s a single loop of the classic cereal that’s big enough to fill the entire box. The giant cereal pieces will go on sale December 19 for $19.99. Each one weighs “almost half a pound,” according to the MSCHF website for the product.
Daniel Greenberg, co-founder of MSCHF, told CNN that an extremely limited number of the huge loops will be released, and he expects them to sell out quickly.
The project was a natural extension of the group’s ethos, according to Greenberg. “We look at things in the culture and figure out how to turn it around,” he said. “Cereal was definitely, you know, one of these cultural readymades in our minds. You could go anywhere in the world and show it to someone and they would know what it is.”
But fans looking for a deeper meaning might be out of luck. The intent, Greenberg said, was, “‘Like, let’s do a big f-ing fruit loop and that was it.”
The development of the cereal, which the website specifies was not affiliated with or endorsed by Kellogg’s, required months of reverse engineering.
“We take everything we do extremely seriously,” Greenberg said. “The easy solution would have basically been to make a cake or donut.”
But rather than simply making a donut or cake in the shape of the classic cereal loop, MSCHF worked to replicate the exact texture and flavor of real Kellogg’s cereal, and Greenberg says the end result is nearly indistinguishable from the real thing.
Greenberg emphasized that MSCHF is fundamentally an art project that caters to collectors. They are not trying to compete with Kellogg’s, and while the product packaging shown on the website clearly mimics an actual Fruit Loops box, it also includes the MSCHF logo and states that the product is not associated with Kellogg’s.
That may be so, but the cereal company doesn’t see it that way. In an emailed statement, Kellogg spokesman Kris Bahner told CNN that the “Big Fruit Loop” constitutes copyright infringement.
“Kellogg Company does not have a relationship with MSCHF and we did not participate in the creation of the Big Fruit Loop. The campaign does not accurately represent the Kellogg’s brand,” Bahner said in the statement. “Given the trademark infringement and unauthorized use of our brand, we have contacted the company seeking an amicable resolution.”
Given MSCHF’s “strong fan base,” Greenberg believes most shoppers probably won’t eat anything out of the boxes. “Most people will want to put it on their shelves and keep it,” he said.
MSCHF fans can look forward to more Alice in Wonderland-style releases in the future. Next year, the collective plans to introduce another familiar product made “microscopic,” though Greenberg didn’t specify what that was.
