7/30/2006 Blog Cereal

[taylor777]

Let me just say I am so glad that someone else thinks about the injustice of under-appreciated superheroes and cereal commercials.
My personal favorite superheroes were the 'Wonder Twins'. I felt they were so under-appreciated that I did an english report. It was about how they got the shaft in the Saturday morning "Hall of Justice" shows. I think my points were as follows: not allotted enough time in the show, they only got to fight off giant ants and had no true villian, and that their only moment of glory was when they got to save all the other superheroes who had been captured.

And I am with you on Trix cereal. As a child I would often cry that they wouldn't give that poor rabbit some Trix cereal. I would be so hopeful for each new commercial that this might be the time they give him the cereal. I think I vaguely remember they did a poll asking people if they should let the rabbit have Trix cereal. I am afraid to tell you that I believe the answer was "no".

Does anyone else remember that??

[Professor John]

Let me just say I am so glad that someone else thinks about the injustice of under-appreciated superheroes and cereal commercials.
My personal favorite superheroes were the 'Wonder Twins'. I felt they were so under-appreciated that I did an english report. It was about how they got the shaft in the Saturday morning "Hall of Justice" shows. I think my points were as follows: not allotted enough time in the show, they only got to fight off giant ants and had no true villian, and that their only moment of glory was when they got to save all the other superheroes who had been captured.

And I am with you on Trix cereal. As a child I would often cry that they wouldn't give that poor rabbit some Trix cereal. I would be so hopeful for each new commercial that this might be the time they give him the cereal. I think I vaguely remember they did a poll asking people if they should let the rabbit have Trix cereal. I am afraid to tell you that I believe the answer was "no".

Does anyone else remember that??

That does it!!! Let's start a telethon!

[eleanor_rigby]

I'm not an advocate for the rabbit (he practically steals Trix from innocent children!) but I do think that if he spent less time dancing and singing about how delightful the cereal is, he might be able to leave, unnoticed, with the box of Trix.

Just a suggestion. . .

[taylor777]

[quote="eleanor_rigby"]I'm not an advocate for the rabbit (he practically [i]steals[/i] Trix from innocent children!) but I do think that if he spent less time dancing and singing about how delightful the cereal is, he might be able to leave, unnoticed, with the box of Trix.

Just a suggestion. . .[/quote]

Point well taken. And now as a mother I do wonder what would have happened if the rabbit had just asked nicely for the cereal?

[eleanor_rigby]

Point well taken. And now as a mother I do wonder what would have happened if the rabbit had just asked nicely for the cereal?

That's definitely something to think about. Were I in the same situation as the children holding the cereal, I would let him have some if he asked politely. :)

[Herbal-T]

Teaching innocent children to break the commandments is indeed a shame, but there is an equally atrocious, yet dangerously subtle, phenomenon festering in the world of cereal spokesmen. You read right, that's cereal spokesMEN. Follow the link to a Dave Barry article that describes the dark side of your not-so-balanced breakfast.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38018-2004Aug3.html

It broke my heart when I had to tell my young daughter that a career as a cartoon cereal spokesperson just wasn't in the cards for her, thanks to those fat cats (all males, I'm sure) at Big G. A glass ceiling is bad enough, but a screen door that keeps out the women and lets the gender-confused insects through is an utter disgrace.

[TimH]

Ken has conveniently neglected to mention his uncanny resemblance to Snap.

Tim H.

[Professor John]

I'm not an advocate for the rabbit (he practically steals Trix from innocent children!) but I do think that if he spent less time dancing and singing about how delightful the cereal is, he might be able to leave, unnoticed, with the box of Trix.

Just a suggestion. . .

Don't blame the rabbit! He graduated from the same stupid university Wiley Coyote attended! Remember him? Always had the Road Runner right where he wanted him, however, he wasted opportunity after opportunity and never took advantage of it in the end.

Hmmm...can we blame this on Al Gore as well...?

[WendellWit]

First, let me point out to Ken that not only are you NOT getting old already (and I am older than he is by nearly the average age of an American Idol contestant), but with his personality, I feel safe in predicting that you never really will. Also, I can safely predict that no matter how much you may try to shield Dylan and the soon-to-be-Maebe by restricting their television viewing and buying Educational and/or Christian DVDs, they AND YOU once again will be exposed to breakfast cereal commercials and you will discover that they have NOT changed at all, except for being better animated, thanks to computers and South Korean indentured animators. Toucan Sam is still getting his nose into everything, the Trix Rabbit is still unable to make a clean getaway and Sonny is more hyper than ever (a strong argument AGAINST sugary cereals).

There is one other more recent General Mills cereal ad I should bring to your attention, for Cinnamon Toast Crunch. It uses an animated human character named Wendell (no relation) in a baker's outfit who, in the commercials running for the last several years, interacts with live-action people, asking grown-ups "what's so special about Cinnamon Toast Crunch" while a group of kids laugh mockingly when the grown-up invariably gets it wrong. The correct answer is: "It's the cinnamon sugar swirls in every bite!" All things considered, I'm surprised they haven't approached YOU to be a grown-up in one of their commercials. Don't do it.

Then there are the commercials for cereals not made by the Big 2. Like Quaker's Cap'n Crunch (originally animated by the legendary Jay Ward and voiced by the legedary Daws Butler). In his current incarnation, he seems to be inviting kids aboard his 'magic ship' to enjoy his cereal in a manner not unlike the creepy guy offering kids candy if they get in his van. Very questionable. And the Post Pebbles cereals are still using pre-existing characters Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble, and Barney still consistantly succeeds in stealing and eating Fred's cereal (no Trix Rabbit syndrome here) leaving Fred yelling angrily. I am sincerely concerned about what would happen to Barney if Fred catches him.

I must say that I am in agreement with Herbal-T and Dave Barry about the sexism inherant in cereal advertising. It should be duly noted that when "kids" appear in a commercial, it is either one boy and one girl or two boys and one girl, never one boy and two girls. This may date back to the dark ages (the 1950s) when it was considered solely the Mother's duty to tell the kids to eat their breakfast while it was the Father's duty to read the newspaper at the kitchen table. As a result, advertisers went to great lengths to make their spokescharacters as un-Mom-like as possible. As far as Dad, well, nobody knows what he's like behind that newspaper. It is either (a) a mystery or (b) an injustice that the male domination still exists, although I had heard that some test marketing was done and both Toucan Sally and Trixie Rabbit tested very poorly. And an attempt to have Betty Rubble steal the cereal from Wilma Flintstone went so badly, Betty was removed from Flintstones vitamins.

And just don't ask about the commercials for Pop Tarts. They are too weird.

[WendellWit]

Don't blame the rabbit! He graduated from the same stupid university Wiley Coyote attended! Remember him? Always had the Road Runner right where he wanted him, however, he wasted opportunity after opportunity and never took advantage of it in the end.

Hmmm...can we blame this on Al Gore as well...?

Actually, after the 2000 election, I discovered that Gore was a classmate of Wile E. C.'s

There is a Gore connection to the cereals, but not one you'd expect. His poorly-named wife Tipper, after succeeding in her campaign to put warning labels on records with lyrics that rhyme with duck, wanted to start putting warning labels on high-sugar cereals, but backed off when shown incriminating pictures of Al eating Apple Jacks straight out of the box.

[Professor John]

Thanks for the correction on Mr. W. E. Coyotes name.

Sorry Mr. Coyote...slip of the keyboard.

[Professor John]

Don't blame the rabbit! He graduated from the same stupid university Wiley Coyote attended! Remember him? Always had the Road Runner right where he wanted him, however, he wasted opportunity after opportunity and never took advantage of it in the end.

Hmmm...can we blame this on Al Gore as well...?

Actually, after the 2000 election, I discovered that Gore was a classmate of Wile E. C.'s

There is a Gore connection to the cereals, but not one you'd expect. His poorly-named wife Tipper, after succeeding in her campaign to put warning labels on records with lyrics that rhyme with duck, wanted to start putting warning labels on high-sugar cereals, but backed off when shown incriminating pictures of Al eating Apple Jacks straight out of the box.

Wow! I didn't know he could get his head into a cereal box!?

[Sean]

Wow! I didn't know he could get his head into a cereal box!?

A picture of that would've been much better on the cover of EW than what they eventually used.

--Sean

[geniusNOTatWORK]

I completely agree with Ken when it comes to cereal. My heart always went out to the Trix rabbit. Sure he didn't ask nicely but think about it, if Trix is the only thing he eats, and no one gives him the cereal, the poor thing is starving!

And I didn't even connect the Cocoa Puffs bird with stealing the cereal and being completely insane (ok, the insane part I knew, he did go "cukoo" for the stuff).

To add on to the stealing cereal mascots, does anyone remember Cookie Crisp? The mascots were practically masked bandits running away from the cops!

[rmfromfla]

And how can we not forget these iconic cereal brands from the '70s:

Quisp
Quake (his nemesis)
Quangaroos (milk turned a bright orange when cereal was added!
Vanilly Crunch (represented by Wilma the white whale)
Freakies ("We are the Freakies, we are the Freakies, this is our Freakies tree....")

Cookie Crisp is still around, as it moved from Ralston to G Mills a few years back....

Topher's cereal character site:
http://www.lavasurfer.com/cereal-index.html

[eleanor_rigby]

I'm not an advocate for the rabbit (he practically steals Trix from innocent children!) but I do think that if he spent less time dancing and singing about how delightful the cereal is, he might be able to leave, unnoticed, with the box of Trix.

Just a suggestion. . .

Don't blame the rabbit! He graduated from the same stupid university Wiley Coyote attended! Remember him? Always had the Road Runner right where he wanted him, however, he wasted opportunity after opportunity and never took advantage of it in the end.

Hmmm...can we blame this on Al Gore as well...? :lol:

Oh, I'm thinking we can. :)

[bobg]

Years ago, when I had a weekly column in my college newspaper, I wrote about the degeneration of Cap'n Crunch's appearance from that of a trusty, even-keeled officer to a half-crazed cereal huckster. Turns out I was onto something, highlighted in this recent BoingBoing post: http://www.boingboing.net/2006/07/17/cereal_box_design_ki.html.

Cheers,
- Bob

[Max Power]

I always felt bad for the Trix rabbit too. I do remember that poll where they asked if they should give the rabbit some Trix. It was then and there that I learned how cruel America really is.

Remember when they added another marshmallow to Lucky Charms? I think they first added purple horseshoes, then red balloons (which just looked like circles to me). IIRC, the red balloons were the result of a vote too.

In the '80s when I was a kid, the Post cereals were called Honey Smacks and Super Golden Crisp (represented by Dig'em the frog and the Sugar Bear, respectively). Little did I know that those cereals were originally called Sugar Smacks and Super Sugar Crisp. I guess they changed the names after they discovered sugar led to tooth decay, diabetes, and obesity. But of course, those cereals were just as sugary as ever.

[Professor John]

I would imagine had the rabbit packed some serious heat...say an AK-47, he would have gotten some stinkin' Trix!

You will have to forgive me folks...I have been deranged for a long time. You see, I never did find out how many licks it takes to get to the center of that blasted Tootsie Pop!

[WendellWit]

And Frosted Flakes were originally Sugar Frosted Flakes and Corn Pops were Sugar Pops ("They're tops!"). There was a time when Sugar was the #1 selling point for cereals... Of course, those were also the days when doctors did endorsements for cigarettes.

[colonial]

IIRC, the Trix rabbit DID get to eat a bowl of the namesake cereal in a 1984 commercial, after winning a "should the rabbit get to eat Trix" contest that ran that summer (I believe the commercial was intended to start airing shortly before the 1984 election).

As far as the rabbit goes, you think he would just take the Trix, eat and hop his way back to the bunny patch, but no. He has to describe the cereal in vivid detail, which leads to the kids finding him and taking the Trix. Next time, silly rabbit, cue the announcer.

James

[colonial]

IIRC, the Trix rabbit DID get to eat a bowl of the namesake cereal in a 1984 commercial, after winning a "should the rabbit get to eat Trix" contest that ran that summer (I believe the commercial was intended to start airing shortly before the 1984 election).

As far as the rabbit goes, you think he would just take the Trix, eat and hop his way back to the bunny patch, but no. He has to describe the cereal in vivid detail, which leads to the kids finding him and taking the Trix. Next time, silly rabbit, cue the announcer.

James

[JenLee]

What was really scary was O.J.s Cereal (which, I should add, pre-dated the OJ-the-athelete fiasco by almost a decade). Anyway, O.J.s was an orange flavored cereal. Given the ubiquity of orange creamsicles, you'd think this would be a good thing, but you'd be horribly wrong. Something in the favorings of the cereal, when combined with beer, made the sloppy mess taste like beer. Enticing if you're in college, but when you're eight? Not so much. Needless to say, that product didn't last too long on the market.

[Robert K S]

Does anybody else buy the rumor that Boo Berry was blacklisted for being "too Jewish"?

[Ken Jennings]

Something in the favorings of the cereal, when combined with beer, made the sloppy mess taste like beer.

In college, I found this was true of many cereals.