Category:
Cereal

Follies of the Madmen #529

Synesthesia in advertising.



Source.

Posted By: Paul - Thu Apr 07, 2022 - Comments (1)
Category: Business, Advertising, Fey, Twee, Whimsical, Naive and Sadsack, Children, Cereal, 1900s

Fingos

A classic business failure. In the early 1990s, the marketing team at General Mills came up with the idea of a cereal that could be eaten without milk any time of day. Despite spending millions to promote it, hardly anyone bought the stuff.

From Wikipedia:

The cereal pieces were shaped as hexagons and were advertised as food that could be eaten at any time of the day... Consumers were confused by the marketing concept when Fingos were released due to it being advertised as a snack despite being in the cereal section. Fingos were unsuccessful and were discontinued in 1994.

As the Gone But Not Forgotten Groceries blog notes: "All cereals can be eaten by hand if you don't add milk."

Posted By: Alex - Tue Feb 08, 2022 - Comments (2)
Category: Business, Cereal, 1990s

Follies of the Madmen #523





Source (pages 10 and 11).

Posted By: Paul - Wed Jan 05, 2022 - Comments (0)
Category: Aliens, Advertising, Comics, Cereal, 1950s

Raisin Bran keeps you regular

Trapeze artists discussing bowel movements doesn't conjure up good images.

Lincoln Star - Apr 1, 1938



Possibly relevant, this Snopes article: Did a Trapeze Artist with Diarrhea Defecate on 23 People? (The answer is no)

Posted By: Alex - Thu Aug 05, 2021 - Comments (3)
Category: Advertising, Cereal, Excrement, 1930s

Germs pick out the weak ones

The theme of this 1920's ad campaign was that if your kid didn't eat Ralston Purina breakfast cereal, then he/she was going to die.

A child's life is a fight! Danger Days are always ahead. Danger Days — the days when little lives hang in the balance — may come next year, next month, or perhaps — tomorrow. Your children must meet these Danger Days. Are they ready? Will they win?

Fitchburg Sentinel - Jan 3, 1928



Pittsburgh Press - Nov 1, 1927

Posted By: Alex - Thu Nov 19, 2020 - Comments (2)
Category: Health, Advertising, Cereal, 1920s

Krinkles the Clown

Clown mascot of Post's Sugar Krinkles cereal during the 1950s.



source: Mr. Breakfast

Posted By: Alex - Sat Jun 13, 2020 - Comments (3)
Category: Cereal, 1950s

Instant Bananas



Scott Bruce and Bill Crawford offer some context in their book Cerealizing America: The Unsweetened Story of American Breakfast Cereal:

[In 1964], Kellogg signed Jimmy Durante to launch Corn Flakes and Instant Bananas with an update of one of his standard songs. Seated at the piano, the old vaudevillian belted out, "Yes, we now have bananas…" Sales were brisk for a few months, then dropped like a rock, as store owners like I.J. Salkin complained that the product tasted like "cardboard discs in a box." Burnett commercial director Rudy Behlmer agreed. "Those little banana wafers looked like holy communion wafers. When you put milk on them, they started to look dark and mushy."

In 1966, Kellogg pulled the plug on Corn Flakes and Instant Bananas. "We tested the market carefully, we tried, we failed, and we're getting out of the market," Kellogg's Ken Englert told Consumer Advertising magazine. Without informing the star of their decision, Kellogg decided to move Durante over from Instant Bananas to Kellogg's main line, Corn Flakes. "Everything was kept quiet until Carl Hixon [a Burnett writer] and myself went to New York to shoot him in a couple of commercials for Kellogg's Corn Flakes," recalled commercial director Rudy Behlmer. "Suddenly he looks at the [story] boards and he says, 'Where are da bananas?' and we said, 'Well, Jimmy… this is without bananas,' and he said, 'No bananas, no Durante.'"


Wisconsin State Journal - Mar 24, 1965

Posted By: Alex - Thu May 07, 2020 - Comments (3)
Category: Cereal, 1960s, Bananas

Shreddies vs. Shredded Wheat



Source of ad.

The Wikipedia entries for Shredded Wheat and Shreddies fail to explain the overlapping existence of two identical cereals from the originator, Nabisco. Much investigation needs to be done. Was one more for the Canadian market?

Posted By: Paul - Fri Apr 24, 2020 - Comments (2)
Category: Advertising, Cereal, 1940s, North America

Kream Krunch

The Kream Krunch man definitely deserves a place in our ongoing series of strange corporate mascots.

Kellogg's introduced Kream Krunch cereal in 1965. The gimmick was that the cereal included chunks of freeze-dried ice cream. The chunks were supposed to stay crunchy in milk, but reportedly they quickly dissolved into a gooey mess, which made the cereal a commercial failure that was soon discontinued.

However, the cereal is most widely remembered today for the creepy, anthropomorphized ice cream cone that served as its official mascot. Wikipedia notes: "The character was never officially named, referred to by historians simply as the Kream Krunch Cone, although it has been called Mr. Scoop Head in popular culture."

More info: MrBreakfast.com, History's Dumpster

image source

Posted By: Alex - Wed Apr 22, 2020 - Comments (1)
Category: Corporate Mascots, Icons and Spokesbeings, Cereal, 1960s

Page 2 of 2 pages  < 1 2




weird universe thumbnail
Who We Are
Alex Boese
Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes.

Paul Di Filippo
Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over thirty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. He has recently begun blogging on many curious topics with three fellow writers at The Inferior 4+1.

Contact Us
Monthly Archives
November 2024 •  October 2024 •  September 2024 •  August 2024 •  July 2024 •  June 2024 •  May 2024 •  April 2024 •  March 2024 •  February 2024 •  January 2024

December 2023 •  November 2023 •  October 2023 •  September 2023 •  August 2023 •  July 2023 •  June 2023 •  May 2023 •  April 2023 •  March 2023 •  February 2023 •  January 2023

December 2022 •  November 2022 •  October 2022 •  September 2022 •  August 2022 •  July 2022 •  June 2022 •  May 2022 •  April 2022 •  March 2022 •  February 2022 •  January 2022

December 2021 •  November 2021 •  October 2021 •  September 2021 •  August 2021 •  July 2021 •  June 2021 •  May 2021 •  April 2021 •  March 2021 •  February 2021 •  January 2021

December 2020 •  November 2020 •  October 2020 •  September 2020 •  August 2020 •  July 2020 •  June 2020 •  May 2020 •  April 2020 •  March 2020 •  February 2020 •  January 2020

December 2019 •  November 2019 •  October 2019 •  September 2019 •  August 2019 •  July 2019 •  June 2019 •  May 2019 •  April 2019 •  March 2019 •  February 2019 •  January 2019

December 2018 •  November 2018 •  October 2018 •  September 2018 •  August 2018 •  July 2018 •  June 2018 •  May 2018 •  April 2018 •  March 2018 •  February 2018 •  January 2018

December 2017 •  November 2017 •  October 2017 •  September 2017 •  August 2017 •  July 2017 •  June 2017 •  May 2017 •  April 2017 •  March 2017 •  February 2017 •  January 2017

December 2016 •  November 2016 •  October 2016 •  September 2016 •  August 2016 •  July 2016 •  June 2016 •  May 2016 •  April 2016 •  March 2016 •  February 2016 •  January 2016

December 2015 •  November 2015 •  October 2015 •  September 2015 •  August 2015 •  July 2015 •  June 2015 •  May 2015 •  April 2015 •  March 2015 •  February 2015 •  January 2015

December 2014 •  November 2014 •  October 2014 •  September 2014 •  August 2014 •  July 2014 •  June 2014 •  May 2014 •  April 2014 •  March 2014 •  February 2014 •  January 2014

December 2013 •  November 2013 •  October 2013 •  September 2013 •  August 2013 •  July 2013 •  June 2013 •  May 2013 •  April 2013 •  March 2013 •  February 2013 •  January 2013

December 2012 •  November 2012 •  October 2012 •  September 2012 •  August 2012 •  July 2012 •  June 2012 •  May 2012 •  April 2012 •  March 2012 •  February 2012 •  January 2012

December 2011 •  November 2011 •  October 2011 •  September 2011 •  August 2011 •  July 2011 •  June 2011 •  May 2011 •  April 2011 •  March 2011 •  February 2011 •  January 2011

December 2010 •  November 2010 •  October 2010 •  September 2010 •  August 2010 •  July 2010 •  June 2010 •  May 2010 •  April 2010 •  March 2010 •  February 2010 •  January 2010

December 2009 •  November 2009 •  October 2009 •  September 2009 •  August 2009 •  July 2009 •  June 2009 •  May 2009 •  April 2009 •  March 2009 •  February 2009 •  January 2009

December 2008 •  November 2008 •  October 2008 •  September 2008 •  August 2008 •  July 2008 •