Cereal Ads Prologue - Are Cereal Commercials in Hibernation?

Cereals are a permanent part of our culture. When we were kids, our parents would buy some from the store, then in the morning, we would get a big bowl, and pour the cereal with some milk, and chow down. Depending on the kid of the cereal, we would finish off the rest of the flavored milk.

Throughout the daytime, when we were watching TV, cereal commercials would show up every so often. They used many different gimmicks; some would feature people off the street either describing why he/she liked the cereal, or acting out their predilection in a scenario. Others would use cartoon mascots interacting with real people, often children. Many others were all-animated. These commercials used slogans and gimmicks that truly spoke to the audience, and made kids bug their parents the next time they went grocery shopping to buy some cereal.

The lot of you reading this may have had pleasant childhood memories such as this.

Well, along with the tangled web of war chaos and trampy celebs as regular features in media tabloids, things have changed.

Cereal commercials today don't appear to be the special kind of custom in our daily lives anymore.

• Some cereal commercials that exist today have changed their mascots, but they don't connect with the audience (Cookie Crisp).
• Some have diluted their gimmicks to the point where their products no longer garner interest (Cocoa Rice Krispies).
• Many others have given up on commercials altogether (Corn Flakes, Golden Grahams, Smacks, Golden Crisp, Corn Pops, Apple Cinnamon Cherrios).
• Existing commercials no longer feature Christmas editions during the holiday season (Honey Nut Cherrios, Trix, Fruity Pebbles).

If you look at RetroJunk.com, or YouTube (so long as they don't go overboard with their rules), you'll see many old commercials of your favorite cereals. But needless to say, those are only the tip of the iceberg in the products and characters that have enriched our lives over the decades.

But like life itself, this is not to say it's all black-and-white.

• Trix still shows some mildly interesting commercials, and just a few months ago, changed their fruity-shaped cereal back to the rounded pieces of before. Surprisingly, many people have long forgotten that that was how the cereal was originally produced.
• Fruity Cheerios is the most recent in a long line of variations to the original Cheerios. Following the footprints of Trix, Froot Loops and Fruity Pebbles, the cheerios come in an assortment of colors (except blue).
• The original Cheerios have raised more awareness of its health benefits over the years. Oats are a universal necessity in battling heart disease, which is probably why your moms and dads encouraged you to eat a bowl of oatmeal from time to time.

There is a lot more that I would like to go into. However, this topic cannot be covered in just one post.

These are some issues concerning cereal ads that I will be covering in the coming weeks:

• Mascots
• Gimmicks
• Formula changes
• Holiday editions

And you're more than welcome to sound off on how you feel about this unfortunate trend.