PINK PANTHER FLAKES

 

PINK PANTHER FLAKES
 
Post Cereals

  

The Pink Panther media franchise was conceived by writer/director Blake Edwards and ran as a series of comedy mystery movies centered around an inept French detective, Inspector Jacques Clouseau (Peter Sellers), and beginning with the theft of the titular diamond with an imperfection at the center that resembled a pink panther. While The Pink Panther proved to be a hit upon its worldwide debut in 1964, an even bigger hit was the animated titles featuring a caricature of Sellers being outwitted by a literal Pink Panther. This title sequence was done by animation studio DePatie-Freleng Enterprises.

Back of the RPX car promotion box.

Encouraged by audience reactions, DFE struck up a deal with The Mirisch Company, the film’s producers, and United Artists, the film’s distributor, to produce a series of 156 6-minute theatrical shorts (of which only 124 ended up being made) featuring Pink working through a given situation—sneaking into an alcoholic’s house to spend the night, working as a secret agent, deciding a pole would look better painted pink instead of blue, etc.—while often being at odds with the Little White Man: a minimalist rounded figure of a person with a large nose and mustache said to be modeled after DFE co-founder and initial short director, Friz Freleng. Each short, played in pantomime outside of the odd side character, was accompanied by Henry Mancini’s catchy theme.

Back of the disappearing paper promotion box.

The Pink Panther shorts proved popular enough for DFE to expand their library of offerings. They began working on The Inspector, Roland and Rattfink, The Ant and the Aardvark, Tijuana Toads, Hoot Kloot, The Blue Racer, The Dogfather, Misterjaw and Crazylegs Crane. However, as the 1960s was coming to an end, the age of the theatrical short was beginning to wane. Looking to keep their investment going, Mirisch decided to follow other studios’ leads and import these shorts onto Saturday morning television. Debuting in 1969, The Pink Panther show packaged various combinations of DFE’s shorts during its 11-year run with all-new bridging sequences and the occasional new short being added.

Post Cereals, one of the sponsors of the show, decided to create a cereal tie-in as promotion in 1972. Pink Panther Flakes was essentially corn flakes with pink coloring added, which would also turn the milk pink once it was added. Advertisements for the cereal played out like a typical Pink Panther short: the Little White Man was about to enjoy some Pink Panther Cereal when Pink decided to help himself in some fashion. Part of Mancini’s theme played over them with new cereal-centric lyrics. Among the cereal’s premiums were a 5-in-1 spy kit shaped like Pink (featuring The Inspector on the back), a zip-cord powered “RPX Car” that resembled the Panthermobile created for the show, a pad of “disappearing paper” that could dissolve in water, and a pink ball.

OREO O'S CEREAL

 

OREO O’S CEREAL
 
Post Cereals

 

            Oreo is a cookie first introduced by Nabisco in 1912 as an imitation of the Hydrox cookie manufactured by Sunshine Biscuits. It has always featured some kind of filling between two cookie pieces; only changing size (Double Stuf had double the crème, Big Stuf was a giant version sold individually, Mini were bit-sized, etc.), flavor in both the crème (lemon, mint, peanut butter, apple pie, etc.) and cookie (golden, vanilla, etc.), and cookie design over the years. It began life as “The Oreo Biscuit” before being renamed to “Oreo Sandwich” in 1921, “Oreo Crème Sandwich” in 1948, and finally “Oreo Chocolate Sandwich Cookie” in 1974 (the origin of the “Oreo” name itself remains a jumbled mystery). Oreos have also expanded to products other than cookies, including brownies, ice cream, candy bars, and, of course, cereal.

            Oreo O’s was first introduced in 1997 by Post Cereals, conceived by an Ogilvy & Mather NYC advertising employee. The cereal was made of chocolate donut-like cereal pieces covered in crème-flavored sprinkles. Early marketing for the cereal featured an ad campaign imply that the cereal was so in-demand, it created a run on milk. One of the earliest commercials featured Shia LaBeouf and Rachel Duncan as kids being “interviewed” by a reporter. The next campaign featured kids being able to see an Oreo O’s-themed paradise by looking through the cereal pieces. In 2001, marshmallow bits were added to give the cereal a new “extreme crème taste”. New CGI marshmallow mascots called The Crème Team were introduced in the commercials to promote this change. Premiums included a Nickelodeon U-Pick live Challenge Game and a free ticket to the film Rugrats in Paris featured in various Post cereals at the time; and a chance to win a cruise by finding a blue-sprinkled cereal piece.

The South Korean version.

            The cereal sold well enough for a decade. Unfortunately, behind the scenes circumstances saw an end to its production. Kraft, owner of both brands, sold off Post to Ralcorp Holdings in 2007, which meant they lost the rights to the cereals they produced before and Post lights access to the Oreo name. Interestingly, this wasn’t an issue in South Korea. Dongsuh Foods was a joint venture between General Foods (the parent company of Post) and Dongsuh Companies Inc., and they had the rights to produce Post’s cereals in the country. With Kraft’s purchase of General Foods, they became part owner of Dongsuh and thus the company was able to retain both licenses needed to continue production of Oreo O’s. An E. coli concern caused a recall of the cereal in 2014, but Dongsuh resumed its production in 2016.

The return varieties.

            As for the rest of the world, Oreo O’s would soon be making a comeback—which was probably welcome news to those who had been buying it off eBay or having friends in South Korea send them some. In 2012, Oreo’s parent company became Mondelēz International and talks were opened with Post on the cereal’s possible return. In 2017, Post tested the waters by releasing a cereal called “Cookies & Cream” through their Malt-O-Meal brand. They sold well, and through a marketing deal made by Walmart for exclusive rights for the first three months, Post announced that Nabisco could be co-branding the cereal with the original 1997 recipe—however, without the marbits. In 2018, it became widely available for all stores to carry; along with a new Golden Oreo variety by the middle of the year. In 2019, Walmart launched another exclusive with the return of the marbits in Mega Stuf Oreo O’s.

The original marshmallow variety.

SMURFBERRY CRUNCH CEREAL / SMURF MAGIC BERRIES CEREAL

 

SMURFBERRY CRUNCH / SMURF MAGIC BERRIES
 
Post

 

        The Smurfs is a successful franchise spinning out of a Belgium comic created by Pierre Culliford, better known as Peyo. Appearing in the pages of Spirou in October of 1958, the Smurfs are long-lived little blue creatures that live in the middle of a medieval forest in a village comprised of mushroom houses. Initially supposed to be just a one-shot guest in Peyo’s already-running strip, Johan and Peewit, they proved popular enough to be upgraded to their own feature. Merchandisers quickly fell in love with them as much as audiences as their similar appearance meant they had to do very little work to produce each character.

       NBC president Fred Silverman decided that the Smurfs would make a good cartoon and negotiated for their rights. The Smurfs debuted on the network on September 12, 1981 and their popularity only continued to grow. The show was quickly expanded to an hour, then 90 minutes with syndicated reruns starting in 1986. It would go on to run for 9 seasons, and changes made to the characters to better distinguish them from each other would become the default appearance for those characters going forward.

            As part of the merchandising blitz that followed the cartoon, Post joined in with a new cereal in 1983: Smurfberry Crunch, named for the fruit that served as the primary food source for the Smurfs. The cereal was comprised of berry-flavored red and dark blue pieces that were six tiny balls assembled in a star shape. A number of premiums were included during the cereal’s run, including Smurf rub-ons, glow-in-the-dark stickers, cut-out award buttons, Presidential campaign buttons, a game on the back panel, tin signs, and a contest to win an entertainment center. Most of the commercials were animated, featuring the Smurfs producing the cereal and singing a jingle to the tune of Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker Suite” (which was in keeping with original showrunner Gerard Baldwin’s desire to feature classical music in the series). Most of the primary cast reprised their respective roles for the various commercials. Actor and musician Jack Black has claimed to have appeared in a non-animated commercial being pulled in a red wagon (although no visual evidence has been found as yet).

        A small issue arose with the cereal. Apparently, the blue dye used, if eaten in enough quantities, would turn excrement blue. While not as concerning as the Franken Berry incident a decade prior, Post still decided to address it by rebooting the cereal in 1987. Now called Smurf Magic Berries, the cereal maintained the same shapes but replaced the blue coloring with orange and yellow. Also, white marshmallow stars were added to symbolize the magic; as evidenced by Papa Smurf (Don Messick) casting a spell with them against their enemy, Gargamel, in the new commercial. It finally left shelves for the last time around the time the cartoon was cancelled. Premiums for this version included gummi candies, simple magic tricks and a game on the back panel.

COMMERCIAL BREAK: SCOOBY-DOO

When you're around for a long time, chances are you're gonna end up with some endorsement deals. As part of the Scooby-Doo 50th anniversary, we take a look at some of the commercials starring the cowardly canine. While watching on Saturday morning, you may have seen these...

AIRHEADS:

BOB'S FAST FOOD:

BURGER KING:

CARTOON NETWORK:

DIRECT TV:

EGGO WAFFLES:

GOGURT:

HALIFAX:

LEGO:

LUNCHABLES:

McDONALD'S:

POST CEREALS:

PRIMESTAR:

SCOOBY MERCH:

THE POLAR EXPRESS CEREAL

THE POLAR EXPRESS CEREAL

Post

            The Polar Express is a 2004 3D computer animated film based on the 1985 children’s book by Chris Van Allsburg. The film followed the adventures of a young boy (Daryl Sabara) who boarded a mysterious train that pulled up outside of his house. The train was taking him and several other children to the North Pole to visit Santa Claus (Tom Hanks) as he prepared for his annual delivery. Co-written, co-produced and directed by Robert Zemeckis, the film utilized live-action motion capture animation to create all the characters. Hanks, who also served as executive producer, played six roles in the film and provided the motion capture for the boy. It was also entered into the Guinness World Records for being the first all-digital capture film in 2006.

            Produced by Castle Rock Entertainment, Shangri-La Entertainment, Image Movers, Playtone, and Golden Mean Productions and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, the film opened on November 10, 2004. Despite mixed reviews, the film ended up grossing over $311.3 million turning it into a box office success.

The back of the box.

To promote the film, Post acquired the rights to produce a limited-edition cereal based on it to coincide with the film’s release. The Polar Express cereal featured chocolate-flavored snowflake cereal pieces and marshmallows in the shapes of bells, trains, mountains, snowflakes and reindeer. The back of the box featured a simple maze game, three stills from the movie, and an ad for The Polar Express Train Adventure game that was featured on Post’s now-defunct Postopia.com website, home to various Flash games based on Post’s cereal. Each box came with a code inside for use in the game. The inside also featured movie-themed gift tags that could be cut out, colored-in and used on Christmas presents.

COMMERCIAL BREAK: HONEYCOMB STARRING HULK

While watching on Saturday morning, you probably saw this:

HULK CEREAL

HULK CEREAL

Post

           

Before there was a Marvel Cinematic Universe, there were a few independent attempts at adapting Marvel Comics properties to the big screen. One of the more divisive ones was Ang Lee’s Hulk.

Hulk centered on the origin of the character, with Dr. Bruce Banner (Eric Bana) becoming exposed to an overdose of gamma radiation during an experiment mishap that turned him into a giant, green, rage monster. The military, led by General Ross (Sam Elliott), relentlessly pursued Banner to put a stop to his alter-ego, as did his biological father (Nick Nolte) who wanted to use his son’s new powers for his own ends. The film opened on June 20, 2003 to mixed results. Lee chose to make his film more of a psychological drama with elements of a Greek tragedy and utilized a style reminiscent of comic book panels. While its ambition was praised, the bleak tone, pacing, lack of action and poor CGI were heavily criticized. Despite becoming a box office success with over $245 million, the next outing for the Hulk would come as the 2008 reboot, The Incredible Hulk.

As part of several food tie-in promotions for the film, Post released a limited-edition Hulk Cereal. The cereal was largely similar to Kellogg’s Corn Pops with added marshmallow bits in the shape of Hulk, a beaker, a brick and an explosion. The box featured Hulk clobbering the cereal while the back had stills from the film and Hulk trivia.