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On-line voters liked the taste of Jeff Grogg's Kashi granola bars. Good for Grogg, who promised to eat the box if customers didn't like his product.

Jeff Grogg, BS '92, didn't exactly stake his reputation as a food scientist on the taste of Kashi granola bars, but he did put his stomach where his mouth is.

In a successful, but short-lived, television and Internet advertising campaign last fall, Grogg, the head of food development at Kashi Foods, offered this bet to viewers: If they didn't like the taste of his company's Trail Mix Granola Bar, he would eat the cardboard box it comes in.

Viewers were invited to log on at www.kashi.com and try a free granola bar. "We distributed nearly 350,000 free bars," Grogg says of the promotion. An additional 600,000 were included in boxes of the GoLean Crunch cereal.

"It was a very popular campaign," Grogg says. Each free bar Kashi distributed through the U.S. Postal Service carried Grogg's mug on the mailer.

"I'm sure the people at the post office are tired of seeing me," he says.

The Kashi Web site offered three ballot choices for people who sampled the product. Voting ended Oct. 19, with 52 percent of the 102,870 voters calling the bar "quite tasty." Only 14 percent of the voters said the bars, a combination of honey-toasted oats, cranberries and roasted almonds, "tasted a lot like cardboard." The rest of the voters (34 percent), apparently with nothing better to do than to vote for Grogg's gastrointestinal discomfort, selected the "quite tasty but eat the box" button.

Needless to say, Grogg was pleased with the results.

After the polls closed on Oct. 19, Grogg thanked voters for not making him eat the box. That commercial can still be seen on the Kashi Web site.

"I was ready to do it, I was going to do it," he tells viewers, while the box stews in a watery marinade that looks as unappetizing as the cardboard itself.

"But I'm so glad I don't have to do it," Grogg says, placing the basted box on an outdoor grill. "That does not look good. I think it's done," he says as the cardboard incinerates.

"I was going to take a week off and do nothing but vote, if I needed to," he says. "I was afraid all my friends were going to stuff the ballot box just to see me eat the box. I was 90 percent sure of that."

Kashi was founded in La Jolla, Calif., in 1984 with 20 employees. The company, now with more than 60 employees, manufactures 55 different products and was purchased by Kellogg Co. in 2000.

Grogg started with Kellogg after graduating from Purdue in 1992 and joined Kashi in 2000. He is head of a five-member team charged with expanding its line of foods that includes crackers, granola bars, waffles, shakes, cereals — even cookies —targeted at consumers interested in a healthier lifestyle.

"We want to make healthy foods that taste good and bring healthy foods to more people," Grogg says.

But they certainly frown on the consumption of cardboard boxes. Please, the Web site pleads, don't eat the box: "The materials in our boxes might be full of fiber, but the FDA has approved them for packaging — not for eating. So don't try this at home."

Grogg's acting career was born out of a Kashi marketing department brainstorming session in early July. "Basically, I was volunteered for the job," he admits.

Shortly after, Grogg flew to a small ranch in California's Napa Valley to shoot the Internet commercial.

The more elaborate television commercial was filmed at three different locations on the famous Tejon Ranch near

Bakersfield.

A 270,000-acre working ranch just north of Los Angeles, the Tejon has been the set for countless television shows and movies. The extras used in the commercial are actual ranch hands. They played the part of … well, ranch hands.

The commercial first aired in early September and ran for three weeks. Unlike a movie premiere, Grogg says, there was no fanfare, glitz or glitter for his acting debut.

"Believe me," he says with a laugh, "there is no red carpet in Bakersfield, California."

Two follow-up commercials feature Grogg's co-workers. Kashi flew Jeanne Scarpace and Sarah Lowrey to New Zealand for filming because of its diverse climates.

Scarpace is shown rappelling, snowboarding and wakeboarding. Lowrey's commercial shows her ziplining through a forest canopy.

Grogg's spot features him being chased by a swarm of bees. "They got to go to New Zealand and I got to go to Bakersfield," Grogg laughs. "Yeah, I definitely think I got the short end of the stick on that one."

Contact Grogg at Jeff.Grogg@Kellogg.com