Ralston Hopes This Cereal Has Legs: Ralston...

Ralston Hopes This Cereal Has Legs: Ralston Foods, a subsidiary of Ralcorp Holdings Inc., will bring Spider-Man cereal to supermarket shelves in August. The product is a mixture of web-shaped sweetened rice cereal and marshmallow pieces in four shapes familiar to Spider-Man fans. While Ralston has captured more than 6% of the cereal market in the past with a lineup of licensed cereal brands ranging from Batman to Barbie, most of the products disappeared from the supermarket shelves in less than six months. But the company hopes Spider-Man cereal will last longer, and it’s prepared to put on a full-scale promotion to support it. Spider-Man will get television spots, coupon promotions in newspaper inserts, ads in Marvel comics and prizes in the packages, the company said this week.