Magically Delicious Tycoon Cereal Assignment

Introduction:We have spent the past few days in class discussing the “self-made man.” During the late 1800s and early 1900s (the “Gilded Age”), the average worker aspired to great wealth and success through their own hard work. These workers looked to the wealthy and powerful tycoons (tremendously successful business owners) as models of what they wanted to be.

With that in mind, we are imagining a world in which one of these powerful tycoons has a cereal designed to commemorate their success. This is a world in which instead of the Lucky Charms leprechaun, children’s cereal mascots are people like John Rockefeller or Andrew Carnegie. Your task is to research your assigned figure (using classroom notes, the internet, and print resources), and redesign your cereal box to celebrate that figure. Your final cereal box will be covered in paper.

Available Tycoons:

  • J.P. Morgan
  • Andrew Carnegie
  • Andrew W. Mellon
  • John D. Rockefeller.

General Requirements:

  • This assignment is to be a mixture of hand drawn and typed material. When reviewing your box, I should see handwritten portions and typed portions. Which is which is up to you.
  • Same goes for images. Your box should contain several images, and some should be hand drawn while others can be printed. Which is which is up to you.
  • The entire box should be colorful. As long as I can read all the text on it, everything else should have some color. Any remaining white space not taken up by text should AT THE VERY LEAST be shaded in with a colored pencil
  • You will be responsible for presenting your box to a small group on the due date (10/2). You should be prepared to explain why you included every element on your box
  • Of course, everything should be in your own words. The ONLY exception are the side panel quotes (see below)

Formatting Requirements:

Each side of the cereal box must be redesigned with the exception of the small bottom panel of the box. (one top, two sides, one front, one back for five total parts to be redesigned). A detailed breakdown of what each side should look like is as follows:

1. The box top should include a brief reference to the most significant contribution that your figure made to American history. Don't go into detail here, but use a "grabber" to get your consumer interested in the event enough to read the back of your cereal box.Example: This man created the largest manufacturer of ballpoint pens in human history!

2. The bottom of the box should include your name.

3. One side panel of your box should include interesting quotes stated by your figure(min. 3).

4. The other side panel of your box should include other interesting facts related to your figure's life. This could be any "trivial" information - important relatives, funny facts, strange occurrences, something odd about how the person died, etc.(min. 4).

5. The front of the box should include the name of your cereal (something creative that relates to your historical figure). It should have a picture of your tycoon (taking up between 30-50% of the surface area), and a picture of a bowl of cereal. It should also have a slogan. Think about real cereal slogan (“they’re magically delicious!”) and come up with one that relates to the businesses your tycoon ran. That’s the baseline, but all the space should be used on the front. You are encouraged to add in extra images or extra slogans. The final product should be visually appealing in a kid-friendly way (you’re selling cereal after all).

7. The back of the box should include the most detailed information about your tycoon. Here you would include a3-4 paragraphbiographical essay of your figure. Take us from their birth through their death, including what made them significant. You will need to include schools your tycoon attended, jobs he had, businesses he ran, and significant accomplishments he made in his career (what made him a success?). Be sure to reference any opposition your tycoon might have faced. Who hated him? Why? How did he respond to that hatred? The back of the box may also include small pictures of your tycoon.

Biographical essay must include a works cited (4 sources minimum) and in-text citations.This can be accomplished simply. NO WIKIPEDIA. Entries should be listed alphabetically (based on author name or title of article or page), and be modeled in MLA format as follows:

"Athlete's Foot - Topic Overview."WebMD,(when author is not known)

Lundman, Susan. "How to Make Vegetarian Chili."eHow, (when author is known)

In-text citations are easier. All I ask is that WHENEVER you are using any piece of information that you looked up or is not common sense, you cite either the author’s last name or the first word of the article or page title in-text. An example would look like this:

Athlete’s foot can be treated with a cold compress (Athlete’s). Vegetarian chili can be made easily with green peppers (Lundman).

IMPORTANT: WORKS CITED TO BE TURNED IN SEPARATELY. DO NOT GLUE WORKS CITED TO CEREAL BOX.