Granola Doesn’t Mean Boring: Kellogg’s Bear Naked Blazes Trails for Nude Hiking

For nature lovers, there’s nothing more liberating than venturing into the great outdoors. But some people like to get even closer to nature—with not even clothes between them and the open air. 

Naked hiking is a pastime enjoyed by an underground community, though the rules surrounding it can be confusing. On National Nude Day (July 14), Kellogg’s granola brand Bear Naked is standing up for those who want to bare it all outside.

Bear Naked has partnered with Outside Magazine and its travel app Gaia GPS to highlight the U.S. trails safe for naked hiking, mapping out America’s first (un)official nude-friendly trail system. The brand is encouraging hikers to review the trails using the hashtag #HikeBearNaked and a discreet emoji system: 🐻 🍑 ✅ (good for naked hikers) and 🐻 🍑 ❌ (bad).

For added safety, it created a special hiking belt that provides cover with strategically placed bags of granola. A website also has resources for the community, such as 8 Naked Hiking Sensations You Aren’t Prepared For and 15 Casual Greetings For When You’re Caught Hiking in the Nude.

The company is launching the campaign along with two new granola flavors, Oats & Honey and Hazelnut Dark Chocolate Chunk, while refreshing its recipes for the Vanilla Almond Crunch and Triple Berry Crunch varieties. 

A wholesome activity

Leo Burnett Chicago created the project, which is in line with the brand’s ethos of encouraging freedom in the outdoors. 

But doing so meant overcoming stereotypes about health food and nature lovers, as well as cultural biases surrounding nudity, said the agency’s creatives Kelley Barrett and Katie DiNardo. 

“‘Granola’ is a word that’s sort of become synonymous with ‘boring.’ But in our brief, there was a line: ‘Naked makes natural exciting,’ so we decided to lean heavily into the nakedness of the brand name,” Barrett and DiNardo explained. “We found this intersection of ‘naked’ and ‘nature’ in the naked hiking community. The more we researched, the more we learned that it’s really a wholesome activity for the people doing it, but the laws around it vary so it’s tough to navigate.”  

The most challenging part of the campaign was developing a tool that the naked hiking community could actually use, the team said. The partnership with Outside allows hikers to review trails without changing the app’s user interface. 

Serendipitously, Barrett and DiNardo also discovered they have a friend who is a naked hiker. His insight gave them a greater understanding of the community, and he even makes a cameo in the film. 

For the nude skeptics, the brand clarified that it “would never encourage anyone to break the law” and is “only encouraging people who are 18+ and already planning on hiking naked to do so in a safe and legal manner.” 

“Every year, hikers across the country embark on hikes to get as close to nature as possible,” Sadie Garcia, director of brand marketing at The Kellogg Company, said in a statement. “Connecting with nature is at the core of our company, and to help them along the way we want to make sure they know which trails are friendly, as well as to have something to bring along their favorite trail snack.”