Kellogg’s is waging a war here over Tigre Toño and Sam el Tucán.

A 2019 policy requires companies that make unhealthy foods to include warning labels on the front of any boxes they sell in Mexico to educate consumers about things like excess sugar and fat. Any food with a warning label — like Kellogg’s Fruit Loops or its Frosted Flakes, which typically contain more than 37 grams of added sugar in a 100-gram serving — is also banned from including a mascot on its packaging

Kellogg’s, the company behind the mascots known in the United States as Tony the Tiger and Toucan Sam, has already sued the Mexican government over the labeling policy. And now, it’s ratcheting up its marketing to keep Toño and Sam alive: Toño has curated a Spotify playlist, starred in a commercial alongside a famous Mexican soccer announcer, and even has seen his likenesses illuminated in the sky by drones, in a light show high above Mexico City.

In supermarkets, you’ll still see Toño and Sam on the shelves. They’re advertising new versions of Fruit Loops and Frosted Flakes that claim to be low in added sugar; the nutrition facts for both products say they have roughly one gram per serving. The company replaced sugar with the sweetener allulose.

Mexican authorities expected this. They included a provision in the policy that required companies to also warn when products contained artificial sweeteners. But, according to media reports, the food industry successfully lobbied the Mexican government to not classify allulose as a sweetener. “We fully comply with the regulation requirements, while at the same time we developed different new food options for our consumers,” Kellogg’s sa

Kellogg’s isn’t the only company throwing everything they have at fighting Mexico’s policy, and finding loopholes to exploit. Companies like Coca-Cola and Kraft Heinz have begun designing their products so that their packages don’t have a true front or back, but rather two nearly identical labels — except for the fact that only one side has the required warning. As a result, supermarket clerks often place the products with the warning facing inward, effectively hiding it. Dozens of companies have also sued; several cases have already made it up to the Mexican Supreme Court.

Now, U.S. regulators are considering a similar policy, because they say it will help consumers make healthier decisions. The details haven’t been ironed out yet — the Food and Drug Administration just announced it is studying the idea. The reforms seem likely to be more modest; the FDA already appears to have rejected the stark, stop-sign-like warnings on Mexican packages and hasn’t mentioned banning mascots. But advocates in both Mexico and the United States say that U.S. regulators should prepare for a years-long political fight.

“We are defending this on a daily basis,” said Simón Barquera, director of the Nutrition and Health Research Center at Mexico’s National Institute of Public Health. (Barquera, like STAT, receives funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies.) While there are “very good arguments in terms of health, productivity, well being, even economic growth” for a front-of-package label policy, he said, regulators “should be worried about industry response.”

“They never stop,” said Eric Crosbie, an associate professor at the University of Nevada, Reno. “They will fight like hell to disrupt anything [aimed at] making that policy successful.”