• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, August 14, 2017

Kellogg’s Special K has tapped Taraji P. Henson to promote its “Own It” campaign message.

The “Own It” campaign — which marked the brand’s return to Leo Burnett, after one campaign with JWT — debuted in the U.S. in May. 

Like other brands long associated with dieting, Special K has been striving to distance itself from that now-unpopular concept, and instead associate it itself with health and self-acceptance. 

This latest campaign encourages women to extend the confidence that they demonstrate in their other daily activities to owning their food consumption choices. 

In the new extension, on Aug. 14, Special K had Henson make an appearance in New York’s Times Square. 

The actor spoke from an oversized digital clock installation, after the clock had been counting down for exactly 61 minutes. 

Why? Because, according to a Special K-commissioned survey, 90% of women in the U.S. question or doubt their food choices, and spend an average of 61 minutes per day second-guessing those choices. (Actually, according to the brand’s release, its online survey was conducted in June among 4,000 women and men ages 21 to 55, with a margin of error of plus or minus 1.54% at the 95% confidence level.)

“We spend way too much time thinking about food and doubting our choices,” Henson told the crowd. She also said that she partnered with Special K because she had had a “food scare” that forced her to rethink her own choices. (The video of the clock countdown and her pitch are on the brand’s Facebook page.) 

Henson also told her story (a bout with gastritis) in an “exclusive” on People.com. That copy, while not labeled as sponsored content, is nearly all devoted to describing Henson’s partnership with Special K, the survey finding being promoted, and Henson urging other women to make “better choices” — meaning Special K cereals, snack bars and Protein Bites.

“If you make better choices for yourself then you feel better about yourself,” she is quoted as saying. “If I choose a Special K bar that has fiber, folic acid, and vitamins A and D over a Snickers bar, it’s a better choice for me so I don’t have to beat myself up all day long about that Snickers bar or feel bad when I go to my trainer and have to admit: ‘I had a Snickers bar today.”