Cartoon on the Box? Your Kid Will Like the Cereal

Want to get your kids eating brussels sprouts? Try putting them in a box with a cartoon character on the front. A new study found that children thought cereal tasted better when it came out of a box with penguins from Happy Feet on the front, USA Today reports. The kids in the study, ages 4 to 6, all ate the same type of cereal—a relatively healthy brand from a natural food store—but some sampled it out of a Happy Feet-decorated box, while others didn’t.

The researchers further divided the boxes: Some kids tried the cereal out of a box with the name “Healthy Bits,” others out of a box with the name “Sugar Bits.” Ultimately, those whose boxes featured the penguins liked the cereal better than those whose boxes were penguin-free—and they didn’t care about the name. Interestingly, when there was no character on the box, kids preferred the “Healthy Bits” cereal over “Sugar Bits.” (More cartoons stories.)