Cereal box typo leads to phone sex line

April 01, 2009|By ERIN JULIUS

HALFWAY -- What does organic cereal have in common with a phone line selling sex?

Not much, you'd think.

But because of a typo, customers who select boxes of Peace Cereal and decide to call the company's 800-number listed on the side of the package are in for a surprise.

Callers are greeted by a recording of a sultry voice asking, "Do you love sex? ... Isn't that why you called?" and later, the caller is warned, "if you're under 18, you must hang up now." Eventually, callers are told what they can do if they have a credit card.

Peace Cereal, which is on shelves in local stores, in December 2008 was made aware of a misprint on its cereal boxes and the company immediately ordered new packaging, said Valerie Crowley, a customer service representative.

Crowley blamed the misprint on a proofreading error.

The cereal is now being shipped from the Eugene, Ore., manufacturing plant in corrected packaging, she said.

The all-natural cereal is available in at least one local grocery store. Thirteen varieties of the cereal were on the store's shelves Wednesday. Of those, seven varieties came in boxes bearing the incorrect telephone number.

Peace Cereal is a product of Golden Temple of Oregon LLC, according to the box.

It was introduced by Golden Temple in 1997 "as a way to support a more loving planet," according to the company's Web site at goldentemple.com. Golden Temple is privately owned by a nonprofit organization and was founded by Yogi Bhajan, according to the Web site.

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