What Happened to the Breakfast Cereal Prizes?
What Happened to the Breakfast Cereal Prizes?
Today’s Kids lack of breakfast cereal prizes apparently lies heavy on my heart! It sounds silly, and it is, but every week when my wife and I go to the grocery store I stand at the cereal aisle and find myself aimlessly staring at the brightly colored boxes on the shelves hoping to see some really cool premium on the box cover that I just can’t refuse! But each week there is nothing. I guess I’ve done this all of my life – look at the boxes to see what the coolest toy you can get for free with a box of cereal. But the past twenty years or so it’s been a fruitless effort.
Growing up in the 70s and 80s I can vividly remember pouring a bowl of cereal into a pastel colored Tupperwear bowl, placing it on a little tray, plopping down in front of our big TV (which back then was maybe 20 inches?), then watching Saturday morning cartoons. It was a glorious time and it all started with deciding if it was going to be Cocoa Pebbles, Fruity Pebbles, or Cap’n Crunch? We had not gotten to the prize in the cereal yet, as we were NOT allowed to go digging with our hand through the box! So retrieving that sought after gem was a natural process, and I can clearly remember the excitement when some brands began putting the premium outside of the sealed bag and just down the inside of the box. Instant gratification! Hoorah! Anyhow… with the cereal and milk in the bowl, my brother and I would head to the family room with our little TV trays and catch up on the latest episodes of the Super-Friends! Of course, some days that little dance would be interrupted with the excitement of that little plastic bag with the prize plopping into your dry cereal bowl! FINALLY!
Thinking back I remember customizable license plates, miniature coin purses with Flintstones faces, rubber erasers, mini Frisbees, and more. Of course, most prizes were instantly forgettable but some where so cool that I can still vividly remember them and well… heck I want them now! There were the Wacky Wallwalkers that came in various Kellogg’s cereals – a small sticky rubber octopus that would “crawl “ and “tumble” down your walls and other smooth surfaces after throwing them. And of course they were also great at collecting dog hair and dust and never quite worked as well as the first few throws! These sticky octopi were really fun and sought after. Another classic for me was the Sugar Crisp Invisible Ink Monster Pen. Mine was a small yellow ink pen with a cap molded like a blue rubber skull. It was s so cool, and I loved being able to write and draw with invisibility… which magically appeared when the paper was wet! I would love to find one of these pens to have on my knick-knack shelves in my office – working or not! Another classic were the Cap’n Crunch Balloon Racers that were small plastic cars featuring the Cap’n Crunch characters and were powered by a blown up balloon attached to them. They seemed to be the descendant of the mid-70s Freakmobiles by Ralston’s Freakies cereals, only theirs were powered by a small rubber bulb you pinched or smashed to make the little car roll across the floor!
Decades before me kids were getting 3D trading cards and glasses with Roy Rogers, Navy frogmen and submarines that would dive and resurface with baking soda, “cats eye” marbles, and records of popular bands literally printed on the back on the box you could cut out, and more! Then there were higher end premiums when you collected box tops and sent them in with a small fee to the cereal manufacturer to get things like silver spoons with characters like Yogi bear and Mary Poppins, toy guns, spy belts, model kits, and other things that would never fit into a cereal box!
What happened? Why isn’t cereal fun anymore? I asked my 20 year old son what was the last thing he remembered getting in a cereal box and he said it was his Star Wars Lightsaber Spoons! Kellogg’s had these fantastic looking spoons and its handle was a small replica of a Jedi’s lightsaber, but the spoon part was a clear plastic. By pushing the igniter button on the saber, your spoon would glow red, blue, green, or that weird yellow that had only existed in the old Kenner Star Wars toy line up to that point! These premiums were found inside the box and were a pretty high quality item.
Then came the “codes” - visit a website and put in the “code” they provided you and you could basically play games on your computer. Bleech! I guess the cereal manufacturers probably took note that kids were starting to play on their iPads while eating breakfast instead of watching Bugs Bunny. In the box premiums simply fell out of favor to cheaper digital products to the point where we have nothing today! It probably has more to do with outside industry pressures from parental, health, and regulatory groups not wanting a "toy" or "character" to be marketed towards an impressionable kid. This all fell out of favor at the same time that our Saturday morning cartoons disappeared as well! We don't want kids to have fun in the morning, do we? It's OK kids... just stare at this iPad for a few hours and eat your Toaster Scramblers instead.
I realize that in grand scheme of things most breakfast cereals are not good for you. Of course, the ones typically marketed at children were loaded with sugar and then high fructose corn syrup. You shouldn’t eat this stuff everyday – we know that. But every once in a while this 50-something year old guy is craving some Cap’n Crunch and it would be nice to get a Smedley eraser or a balloon racer in the box!
Thoughts? Comments? Email me at [email protected]
A 1975 Freakies Cereal 'Gargle' Freakmobile in action! Click the PLAY button to watch him go!
My Grandad did not mess around with his Cocoa Pebbles back in the 70s!
All of these great cereals... not a single prize to be found!
An excellent read if you want the REAL scoop on the history of breakfast cereals and their mascots by historian Tim Hollis!
