The stories behind your favorite TONY THE TIGER Cereal: FROSTED FLAKES In the 1950s, the Kellogg Company wanted an animal to advertise its new Sugar Frosted Flakes. They needed it to appeal to kids while reas- suring moms that it was OK to let their kids eat a sugared cereal for CEREAL breakfast. An agnecy came up with four choices, and Kellogg finally settled with Tony the Tiger. The tiger concept was so successful that Kellogg’s sued Exxon Mobile MASCOTS for their use of a tiger in their advertisements. Here are the stories behind the characters "THEY'RE that successfully motivated us to beg our GRRRRREAT!" If Tony’s singing voice parents to purchase their sugary products. sounds familiar it’s Sources: mentalfloss.com, thrillist.com, kelloggs.com, generalmills.com because his voice actor Thurl Ravenscroft also sang “You’re a mean ORIGINAL one Mr. Grinch” for the TAGLINE Grinch cartoon. “I’m a rabbit and rabbits are supposed THE RABBIT to like carrots. But Cereal: TRIX I hate carrots. Before he was animated, the I like Trix.” Trix rabbit was a hand pup- THE FOUR CHOICES pet. By 1976, General Mills was The Leo Burnett advertising agency came worried it was sending the wrong message to kids by having the rab- up with four different choices for the cereal: bit always fall short of his aspira- Tony the Tiger, Katy the Kangaroo, Elmo the tion. They decided to let the kids Elephant and Newt the Gnu. vote whether the rabbit should get a bowl. The Rabbit’s campaign was so successful that more than 99 per- HORATIO CRUNCH CURRENT cent kids voted to let the rabbit have Cereal: CAP'N CRUNCH TAGLINE a bowl. The Rabbit has succeed in One of the grossest things about cold cereal is when it gets too soggy “Silly Rabbit, grabbing bites here and there, but he and turns mushy. Captain Horatio P. Crunch was born in response Trix are for kids.” hasn’t had a full bowl since 1980. to a survey kids that said they hated soggy cereal. The Captain was charged with guarding his cereal from the menace of sogginess, Jean Le-Foote. DID YOU KNOW? Once the television ads began to be seen by a larger and LUCKY younger audience, Kellogg’s Cereal: LUCKY CHARMS decided to modernize the three 1933 1949 The concept of marshmallows in a bowl (or and make them more human- “marbits,” as General Mills called them) was like. Snap, Crackle and Pop are easily appealing to kids, but a much harder now the longest-running cereal sell for parents. Lucky was spawned from a advertising campaign in history. 1979 concept to base the marshmallows around a charm bracelet. Lucky’s original charm brace- let included yellow moons, orange stars, pink TODAY hearts, and green clovers. SNAP, CRACKLE AND POP BRILLIANT IDEA Cereal: RICE KRISPIES Lucky Charms Rice Krispies had the distinction of being hit the shelves in a cereal you could hear. Illustrator Ver- 1964 after some non Grant drew the three characters as crazy food scientists gnomes. Snap was the first gnome and ap- experimented with peared in a few solo ads before his broth- Cheerios and Circus ers came along. When they first started ap- Peanuts marshmal- pearing in 1939 they fought against their low candy to form rivals Soggy, Mushy and Toughy for the the cereal we love hearts (and bowls) of the children. today. +.