Too-tough Weet-Bix All Blacks subbed

Sanitarium is scrambling to redesign a Weet-Bix promotion featuring All Blacks collector cards after accepting that children might find their hi-tech features hard to digest.

The cards, when placed in front of a webcam, trigger 3D animations of All Blacks stars to appear on screen.

But the hoops that need to be jumped through to get the feature to work frustrated television commentator Ben Gracewood so much that he unleashed an expletive-laden tirade against Sanitarium and the All Blacks in a blog.

The company budgeted $1.3 million for the promotion.

Technology usability expert Trent Mankelow, co-founder of Wellington firm Optimal Usability, said: "My question would be, did they ever sit down with a 10 year-old and get them to use it?"

Weet-Bix brand manager Tanne Andrews admitted that no-one had. He said some criticisms of the promotion were valid. The registration requirement had been removed. It made children provide their email, date of birth and a password before logging on to a website to use the cards.

The cereal-maker is also looking into what can be done to simplify the installation of software required to play the animations.

An Australian company designed the look and feel of the software, Mr Andrews said. Sanitarium would have loved to have worked with a New Zealand firm, but none were quick enough to come up with the idea.

- © Fairfax NZ News