![A bee curled up in a black-eyed Susan flower. Pictures are from Susan Damon's pollinator friendly bee garden in St. Paul, Minn., all photographed throughout the spring and summer of 2014. ]](https://arc.stimg.co/startribunemedia/TN5FFU3O3F2GZUACQZNRT3A5TU.png?&w=1080)
General Mills has added "flower bombing" to its marketing arsenal as part of a new campaign for one of its organic food brands, Cascadian Farm, and bees.
A video released Monday for the company's "Bee Friendlier" campaign shows a yellow crop-dusting plane dropping more than a million wildflower seeds over a tiny field in the farming community of Yolo County, Calif. The seeds, encased in multicolored clay compost pellets, fall to the ground in slow motion while onlookers applaud.
The idea is to connect the brand with consumers who know bees are in trouble and want to help, said Taylor West, the Twin Cities-based marketing manager for Cascadian Farm, the nation's biggest granola maker.
"All the experts say that's the No. 1 thing we should be doing — planting wildflowers," West said, referring to the nation's dramatic decline in honeybees and other pollinators.
The "Bee Friendlier" campaign won't actually acquire or rent land to plant more flowers, but it will donate up to $150,000 to the Xerces Society of Portland, Ore., and the University of Minnesota's Bee Lab, two of the country's premier centers for bee research and conservation. The funds will come from Cascadian Farm customers who enter product codes online that are good for a 50-cent donation. The customers decide if their contributions should go to wildflower planting, research or education and training.
Entomology professor Marla Spivak, who heads the U's Bee Lab, said she welcomes support from the "cause marketing" campaign to address declining bee populations. More than a third of crop production worldwide depends on pollinators.
"General Mills recognizes the connection between healthy bees and healthy food," said Spivak, who noted the company previously donated about $200,000 for Bee Lab research projects that are now underway.
West said nearly all of Cascadian Farm's products rely on pollination by bees. The brand's mantra of treating nature as an ally also fit the campaign, he said. In a separate promotion this year, a cereal made by Cascadian Farm and sold through the Whole Foods retail chain is raising $100,000, also for bees.
