(frankieleon)It was once as American as, well, blue jeans to start your day with a bowl of cereal and milk. Breakfast grains were once major sponsors behind kid-oriented television programming, or licensed beloved fictional characters to put on cereal boxes. Now sales at major cereal companies are down, and a variety of reasons are contributing to the decline. Earnings at Kellogg are down 15%, but it’s not just the big, expensive brand names that are falling out of favor.