This isn’t your average cereal; OffLimits is a cereal and culture brand built around emotionally unstable cartoon characters. Identifying itself as a counterculture cereal, Offlimits has character/ flavor combinations to represent every mood you’re in – if you feel tired and groggy in the morning, “Dash McFlash” turns your milk into cold brew or if are craving a midnight snack, “ZOMBIE” has adaptogens that make you relax. Whatever time of day you enjoy your cereal, OffLimits direct-to-consumer cereal brand is sure to grab your attention as its broader mission is to give a voice to underrepresented groups; groups that OffLimits contends have been marginalized by the larger cereal brands. In addition to cereal, OffLimits is leading an initiative to support artists and school art programs through the proceeds of its Gallery that features one-of-a-kind artwork.
Alleywatch caught up with CEO and Founder Emily Elyse Miller to learn more about how OffLimits is creating a counterculture cereal brand. Miller is a creative and writer who has been in the NYC food scene, and last May, Miller published the popular book Breakfast: The Cookbook.
Tell us about the product or service that OffLimits offers.
OffLimits is a cereal and culture brand built around emotionally unstable cartoon characters. We offer a unique approach to cereal, using it as a functional fix. We’ve got a character for every mood to rep you at your most wired or most tired. DASH turns your milk to cold brew and ZOMBIE has the adaptogens to max your relax.
What inspired the start of OffLimits?
Cereal has become a vehicle for culture rooted in racism, sexual repression, misogyny, and deceivingly bad-for-you ingredients. I was done supporting brands with these underlying structures, so I decided to build my own from the ground up.
How is OffLimits different?
Kellogg’s and General Mills are often seen as the cool kids in the cereal gang… but it’s all fake. Healthy cereals tend to make miraculous wellness claims like ‘zero sugar’ or a million grams of protein, but those brands are just perpetuating the oldest trick in the book: you’re not good enough, but if you buy our product then you will be. At OffLimits, we use real ingredients for real people! Our band of emotionally unstable cartoon characters were created to give voice to the countercultures and misunderstood, to ease the fear of speaking out due to judgment based on skin color, race, gender, or sexual orientation.
What market does OffLimits target and how big is it?
OffLimits is run by a team of creatives who don’t fit into any one market. We represent countercultures: punk rockers, K-Pop stans, skaters, kids, adults, artists, and anyone who loves cereal. We’re on a mission to build a community of like-minded people who question the status quo and challenge the way things are.
What is the business model of OffLimits?
We have a high/low model similar to fashion. By building a base of early adopters and collaborators at the designer level, we’ll have the insight and community to take the brand into a diffusion setting. This allows us to have representation in socioeconomic communities of all levels. The goal is to provide a viable, low sugar, clean label alternative to traditionally sugar-laden brands. We’re a healthy cereal. Not a diet cereal.
How has COVID-19 impacted the business?
We were supposed to launch in mid-March, but due to COVID-19 we ultimately decided to push the launch. Then we pushed our launch again, so that we could stand together, as a team, handing out cereal, tampons, sunscreen, masks, water, and supplies to those who are protesting against hate, inequality, and injustice. These ideals have been constant in our team’s lives and were worth putting our launch on hold for.
What are the milestones that you plan to achieve within six months?
Over the next six months, we plan to use our voice to rally a community and build a new type of consumer business. We’re radically transparent and here to represent marginalized voices through our cereal characters. Money can’t buy authenticity.
What is the one piece of startup advice that you never got?
Brands are encouraged to follow a playbook based on the success of others, and I don’t play by the rules. I can’t even follow a recipe without doing my own thing. The advice I never got is to be relentlessly different. Even when everything is stacked against you, uniqueness is what will resonate.
Brands are encouraged to follow a playbook based on the success of others, and I don’t play by the rules. I can’t even follow a recipe without doing my own thing. The advice I never got is to be relentlessly different. Even when everything is stacked against you, uniqueness is what will resonate.
If you could be put in touch with anyone in the New York community who would it be and why?
AOC is it! Her voice is clear, just, and unwavering.
Why did you launch in New York?
Aside from New York being my home for the past 11 years, it fully embodies the Break The Rules mentality of OffLimits. New Yorkers encourage the creative, the weird, and the misunderstood. I wanted to launch in a city that embraces the brand I’m building.
What’s your favorite outdoor dining restaurant in NYC
I’m not currently dining out as I feel it’s too big of a risk to the frontline restaurant staff. I prefer to support takeout and delivery from West~Bourne, Wildair, Scarrs, Ovenly, and Caffè Panna.
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