We all know Tony the Tiger. We know Snap, Crackle and Pop. We know Captain Crunch and Count Chocula and all the rest of the cereal aisle mainstays.
We also know the cartoon characters who were granted their own cereals. Whether the defining success of the Flintstones’ Fruity and Cocoa Pebbles or things as transitory as the Smurfs and Smurfberry Crunch, those characters had their own fame independent of the cereal.
Then there are the other ones, the characters who were created for a cereal that never quite succeeded… or who were deemed to be a marketing drag on otherwise successful cereals.
First on our list is Sir Grapefellow and his rival Baron von Redberry. What’s more dear to children’s hearts than WWI British and German fighter pilots, after all? And with one you get a grape-flavored cereal, while with the other you get the more popular berry-flavored one… with fruit punch flavored hard marshmallows.
Then there’s the issue of a cereal that’s seeking a mascot. Case in point: Sugar Corn Pops. Kellogg’s had consistently been branding their cereals with successful mascots. The aforementioned Tony the Tiger and Krispies elves; Toucan Sam; Dig ‘Em; even the cartoon sun holding raisin scoops and the weird doodle kids from the Apple Jacks boxes were loved. Corn Pops, however, couldn’t get a mascot to remain popular. Characters like Big Yellow and Poppy the Porcupine gave it their best shot, but… no.
Hard to say why advertising cereal on the matter of it being brightly colored or exploding from a bowl would have failed….
Then there’s Tony Jr., the tiger kid who advertised Frosted Rice. His father had made “They’re Grrrreat!” a known catchphrase but kids just didn’t want to shout “Rrrrrrice!” Instead the character was retired early and the cereal given over to the Krispies elves after a quick rename.
Question of the night: what is your ideal breakfast?
