Kellogg's Should Reinstate Phelps as Spokesperson

I agree 100%. Phelps SHOULD be reinstated.

What he did is no different than what I, and 70% of my fellow
Americans, have done at one time or another in their own lives.

Simply put, smoking pot is an understandable mistake that the majority
of Americans make at some point in their lives and one should be
forgiven for giving it a try.....especially if you've done it before
yourself or you're just a hypocrite.

Everyone deserves a second chance, including Phelps.

For those who would like to help us get Phelps reinstated: join:

- the Marijuana Policy Project or The Drug Policy Alliance

I belong to both and we work on getting medical marijuana legalized at
the federal level (so we can stop the damn DEA from hassling and
intimidating sick patients with AIDS, cancer, glaucoma, etc. in CA and
elsewhere), getting sentencing guidelines synchronized for poweder
coke and crack and other sorts of legal system clean-up work to ensure
ALL of us are treated as fairly and equally as possible in the CJ
system.

Michael Phelps violated his contract with Kellogg's and broke the law.
He is an adult and has to accept the consequences of his actions.
Kellogg's is not going to take him back.

Something tells me, Sarah, that you would not be so supportive of Mr.
Phelps were he and his butt not so cute.

instead of going through the folks at the bottom of the pyramid, here
are some email addresses that for the most part are current, let the
executives know who we really feel, use the bcc like there is no
tomorrow ;)

David.Mackay@kellogg.com - CEO/President
James.Jenness@Kellogg.com -Chairman
Brad.Davidson@Kellogg.com -SVP/Pres Kellogg North America
Juan.Villalobos@Kellogg.com -Pres US Morning Foods
Paul.Norman@Kellogg.com -SVP/Pres Kellogg
Todd.Peneger@Kellogg.com -VP/Pres Kellogg US
Mark.Baynes@Kellogg.com -VP/CMO
John.Bryant@Kellogg.com -COO
lores.tome@kellogg.com -Associate Director, Corporate Communications
jose-francisco.rios@kellogg.com -Manager, Corporate Affairs
tania.ellis@kellogg.com -Manager, Nutrition & Regulatory Affairs
robert.woodall@kellogg.com -Vice President, Marketing and Innovation
Paul.Fitzsimmons@kellogg.com / info.europe@kellogg.com
Director, Corporate Affairs & Communications
pro.ecommerce@kellogg.com their payments division

*All links shown are publicly available online and thus considered in
the public domain.

Yes,
If not, Phelps should spend hold a press conference stating that he
could never even compete in the olympics while using kellogs products.
Then he should call on all his fans to stop using kellog's products.

I know two people who died as a direct result of smoking pot. They
decided to smoke a few joints and then take a drive. Obviously not a
good idea. The driver drove off a bridge into a lake and was killed
instantly. His friend wasn't killed but he was so stoned he was unable
to swim to safety and drowned just a couple of feet from shore. They
were both just 18 years old. I went to school with him and this
happened on Christmas Eve, 1988.

So yes, pot can and does kill. If they had not been stoned they would
not have died.

I don't think that Kellogg's is dropping him for his actions, but for
what his actions say to the kids that eat their cereal.
Yes Michael did something stupid and it happens, but there are
consequences for you actions, and he has to learn that.

You claim that "one out of two Americans has used marijuana" but you
don't list where you got that fact from.

Anyone can just sit at a computer and type stuff like that out...

"Only one out of every ten people in American use illegal drugs."

See? ... So yes, please quote your facts before expecting others to
believe them.



And more importantly....
Mr. Phelps is now learning (the hard way) that with actions comes
responsibility.


Too many people these days feel that they shouldn't pay the price for
making the wrong decision. Yet... that's part of life.

It's much like watching a child cry... not because he did something
wrong, but because he got in trouble for it.


It's part of growing up. Learn from your mistakes and understand that
your actions DO have consequences.

Since so much is being said about medical marijuana I decided to do a
little research about it. Currently 13 states have approved the use
of medical marijuana for certain conditions that have not responded to
conventional treatment.

Getting permission to use marijuana for medical purposes is not just a
simple matter of going to your doctor and getting a script to hand to
your local dealer. You must have a condition that is approved by the
state such as AIDS, cancer, chrons (sp?) disease, cathexia, epilepsy,
glaucoma, MS and certain others. Not all states have the same
conditions approved.

Some states say that you must be treated by the same doctor for the
same ailment for at least 12 months and must have tried conventional
means of treatment first. When those have failed, you and your doctor
can apply to the state to use medical marijuana. In most states there
is a filing fee. Once approved there are strict limits on how much
you (or your caregiver) can possess at one time, it ranges from 1 to 8
ounces and a certain number of plants.

If you are found to be outside the guidelines for use and possession,
you can still be prosecuted so it is not a free for all. You can also
be subject to random drug testing to make sure you are only using the
approved amount and are not using other drugs.

Some states require certain testing beforehand such as a pulmonary
function test and some require psychological testing as well to make
sure you don't have a tendency for addiction.

Since most of the conditions that are approved are very debilitating,
I highly doubt Michael Phelps was using medically approved marijuana.

I think that Seth Myers said it all best on SNL Saturday night.

As someone below noted, I don't care either if Michael wants to toke
up. He's in good company. But the fact of the matter is that he
signed a contract where he agreed not to do that, among other things.
The short story is that he violated his contract with Kelloggs, and
they were right in terminating it.

Let's reward him for his athletic prowess, but not for his stupidity.

When I was new to Minnesota, I read something in passing about the
Grassroots Party. I confused it with the Green Party, and I attempted
to contact them several times about joining/registering under their
party. I left emails, called a few times and never heard anything
back.

Then I found out a few years later that the Grassroots Party's sole
purpose is to work for the legalization of marijuana. THat explains
their poor organization.

I bet they would have gotten back to me if I had said I was calling
about a shipment of Doritos and Twinkies.

oh thank you! I needed a good laugh!! :D

That's one of the downsides of making money by projecting a public
image: your employment depends on the image you project.

I don't care whether Phelps uses marijuana, and I don't care whether
Kellogg's employs him. I've actually never used any illegal drugs,
but like many people I don't really see marijuana use as a very big
deal. But I don't have kids.

If I did have kids, I would not encourage them to use someone whose
marijuana use had been made very public as a role model. Being
convicted of drug offenses in this country these days can have very
severe consequences beyond spending time in jail or prison, and aside
from any personal beliefs I have about the merits of specific drugs I
wouldn't want those consequences for my kids (or, really, any kids --
but I don't buy cereal for other people's children).

So, yeah, I probably wouldn't buy a box of cereal with Michael Phelps'
face on it if I had kids who were going to eat that cereal and who
were too young to have a really nuanced conversation about drugs in
early 21st-century American society, and that means I can understand
at least one reason that Kellogg's would decide not to use him to
promote their products.

After having read several comments from Shane, I think here's what
needs to happen:

Phelps should dedicate himself to being a proud spokesman for
marijuana legalization.

I may have missed it, but did Phelps ever say "I smoke pot, I enjoy
it, and I think it should be legal"?

As an Olympic champion, that makes him a national hero. He should use
that status, and the connections he's made, to lobby for changes in
the law.

If the majority of the public is pro-pot, there should be sufficient
pressure to change the laws.

Problem is, too many of these people don't want to spend time or
energy on getting the law changed. They just want to smoke their pot
and whine, in private or when anonymous.

To those that do feel strongly about changes to the law and actually
do work to get it changed... whether I agree or not... I support your
energy and commitment to the cause.

Phelps had a clause in his contract which gave Kellogs the right to
terminate the contract if he did not represent the company in a
positive manner. He did not so he is out.
Loosing Kellogs as a sponsor is not hurting him financially. And if it
bothered him to be terminated then I am sure he and his people would
be manuevering a way to get Kellogs back.

Everyone knows that he parties, everyone knows that he does what any
person his age does...its just making it public that makes the
difference. I am sure there have been many times when he has used pot
but the issue is that it was never brought out in public. Now it
is...it was his choice to use the bong so he has to pay the price of
someone taking the photo and getting paid a bundle to have it made
public.
I am sure he will watch himself more closely now so not to loose any
more sponsors.

we talk about america as if freedom of religion and freedom of speech
make one free. what about freedom to do what you want as long as it
causes no harm to another. we have twice as many prisoners in this
country than china has and china has 4 times the people. as an
american it bothers me that the land of the free has the most
imprisoned populace. 80% of inmates are there for drug charges.some
see smoking cannabis as criminal deserving of imprisonment. i see a
bigger crime in taking away someones freedom in the land of the free
because they exercised their god given(and constitutionally) free
will
and smoked a plant .u.s. is the breadbasket of the world yet the #1
cash crop is cannabis. what kind of democracy criminalizes such a
huge
demographic for exercising their free will when no other is harmed.
we
once showed in school for years a movie which told people that if
they
smoked cannabis they would end up a whore or a murderer. no wonder
ignorance like this exist. it costs more to imprison a man than to
send him to a prestigious private school. come on people our drug
laws
were written by tricky dicky(a real law abider)

I support Michael Phelps as an athlete, support his efforts to attone
for his stupid mistake, and I also support Kellogg's for coming out
and saying he doesn't promote an image that Kellogg's stands for.

Therefore I support everything except reinstating him as a
spokesperson. His actions are not consistent with the image the
company wishes to project. It is an extremely simple concept.

On the other hand, maybe Kellog's would consider a new campaign, where
there is an athlete smoking a giant joint on the front of the box, and
on the side panel an offer to send in ten box tops for a free bong.

Michael Phelps is a business now, not just a regular guy. He made a
stupid decision and he has to own the consequences.

They did the right thing. For now, it's illegal to smoke pot. It's
considered an illegal drug. He smoked it and got caught. He also got
caught for an even worse offense a couple years ago, drunk driving. I
think the only reason that he was not hurt by that with sponsors is
that it occurred before the last Olympics, which I think is what drove
up the interest in him as a sponsor.

Both of those decisions are extremely poor ones. He deserves to pay
for them. He will get to go back to swimming and he will get to go
back to being a sponsor I am sure, but for now, he must pay a price
for doing something illegal.

I personally think that they made the right decision. He decided to
do something stupid (and illegal) and Kellogg's said that they do not
want that representing their company.

sarah h.,

Mr. Phelps signed a contract as spokesperson affirming that he would
and would not do certain things.

He elected to violate that contract and is paying the consequence.

Youthful indiscretion or not it's a good lesson for him and his
followers.

BillR.