Speaker 1: Welcome to Part Time Genius, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: I Guess what Will? What's that Mango? So at our
Speaker 1: first week in college, I remember being in line for
Speaker 1: breakfast and and there was just this wall of amazing
Speaker 1: breakfast cereals, remember this, And we were, of course away
Speaker 1: from our parents for the first time and being independent
Speaker 1: and responsible, and so I piled my bowl high with
Speaker 1: Lucky Charms. I mean, I think it was Lucky Charms,
Speaker 1: but whatever was the most nutritious cereal out there. I
Speaker 1: love that when you were finally like free from the
Speaker 1: overside of your parents, like that was the first thing
Speaker 1: you did to express your freedom, was like, get a
Speaker 1: big bowl of cereal. But yes, I do remember that big,
Speaker 1: awesome wall of cereal. Yeah, and the people we were
Speaker 1: with started making fun of me for eating a kid
Speaker 1: cereal instead of musically or whatever. And and right then
Speaker 1: the star basketball recruit Eldon Brand walked up and got
Speaker 1: a bowl of the same thing, and it was just
Speaker 1: pure silent and I felt like such a trend setter.
Speaker 1: And I remember that that's when you became the most
Speaker 1: popular kid on campus. And not really, but part of
Speaker 1: the reason I love breakfast cereals so much. And you know,
Speaker 1: we used to have big serial parties in Metal Flaws
Speaker 1: where everyone would bring a box of their favorite cereal.
Speaker 1: But uh, there's just such a wonderful association with childhood
Speaker 1: and Saturday Morning cartoons, and that's actually why we're talking
Speaker 1: about cereal today. Let's dig in. Hey, their podcast listeners,
Speaker 1: welcome to parts. I'm genius, I'm Will Pearson and as
Speaker 1: always I'm joined by my good friend man Guesh Ticketer
Speaker 1: and the man on the other side of the soundproof
Speaker 1: glass eating a big bowl of frosted many weeks good
Speaker 1: choice today as our producer, Tristan McNeil. But today we're
Speaker 1: heading back to the growth trial for a closer look
Speaker 1: at all things cereal, you know, the most whimsical or
Speaker 1: nutritionally questionable at all of this, at every part of
Speaker 1: a complete breakfast. And so we'll dig into the weird
Speaker 1: stories and surprising facts behind our favorite brands, as well
Speaker 1: as a few of the lesser known breakfast cereals that
Speaker 1: time forgot. And then a little bit later we'll be
Speaker 1: joined by Gay Fonseca. He's a TV writer and he's
Speaker 1: spent more than a decade collecting childhood nostalgia in the
Speaker 1: form of vintage cereal boxes. It's a fascinating collection. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and he's also the host of this really fun YouTube
Speaker 1: series called cereal Time, which is the series on the
Speaker 1: subject of breakfast cereal. I mean, he's been doing it
Speaker 1: for a couple of years now, so I'm super excited
Speaker 1: to just hear how he got started. Yeah, well, we'll
Speaker 1: gabs among the most devout of cereal enthusiasts, but he's
Speaker 1: definitely not alone in this. I mean, lots of people
Speaker 1: love cereals, and in the hundred and fifty plus years
Speaker 1: since it came onto the market, cold breakfast cereal has
Speaker 1: become a staple for millions of people around the world.
Speaker 1: And you know, strangely, this love affair got its start
Speaker 1: in the late nineteenth century kind of as an accident.
Speaker 1: You know, it was this invention of fundamentalist Christians who
Speaker 1: were seeking to promote a healthy, sin free lifestyle. And
Speaker 1: much of this is you know, stories that people have heard,
Speaker 1: but it's still pretty interesting that the bland foods, as
Speaker 1: you know, like toasted corn and oats, where they were
Speaker 1: thought to help suppress sexual urges and prevent arousal. And
Speaker 1: so this thinking led to the creation of a few
Speaker 1: notable foods, including Graham crackers, of course, but the one
Speaker 1: that really caught on what the public was sereal. So
Speaker 1: Dr John Harvey Kellogg, the superintendent of a sanitarium in
Speaker 1: Battle Creek, Michigan, and his younger brother Well they stumbled
Speaker 1: upon the recipe for what would ultimately become corn flakes.
Speaker 1: After allowing some of the cooked wheat to sit out
Speaker 1: for too long, the Kelloggs returned to find the wheat
Speaker 1: had gone stale, but rather than toss it out as
Speaker 1: you might think they would, they decided to roll it
Speaker 1: out into thin flakes and then toast them. And the
Speaker 1: corn flakes were a big hit with their patients, so
Speaker 1: the Kelloggs decided to start marketing them to a broader public. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and as interesting as that early history is, it's pretty
Speaker 1: familiar by this point. So instead of going deep on
Speaker 1: sanitariums and grape nuts were, we're gonna focus mostly on
Speaker 1: the second act of the serial story. That's the period
Speaker 1: from about nineteen fifty to the early nineties when marketing
Speaker 1: to children really took off and sugary cereals really began
Speaker 1: flooding grocery store aisles. Well, before we dive into that
Speaker 1: colorful history, I thought we could take a quick look
Speaker 1: at the state of cereal today, you know, just by
Speaker 1: the numbers, and it's amazing how far cereal has come
Speaker 1: from its early years as this niche product to the
Speaker 1: mammoth industry that it is now. So just looking at
Speaker 1: the US market alone, the breakfast cereal industry now generates
Speaker 1: nearly ten billion dollars in annual revenue. And that that's
Speaker 1: according to mord Or Intelligence. Did you say word or intelligent?
Speaker 1: Feel like a hobbit? It's kind of a jarring name
Speaker 1: if you're a Lord of the Rings fan. But it's
Speaker 1: just the coincidence, unfortunately. But like I was saying, Americans
Speaker 1: lead the world and serial consumption. It ranks fourth on
Speaker 1: the list of the top ten package goods sold in
Speaker 1: the US, and of American households by a box of
Speaker 1: cereal at least once a year. And we're not the
Speaker 1: only ones who love it. Canada, the UK, Australia, they
Speaker 1: all have cereal markets that rival the size of our own.
Speaker 1: And in recent years cereal has also gained in places
Speaker 1: like China and India and Brazil. In fact, the breakfast
Speaker 1: cereal marketing industry rakes and about thirty five billion dollars
Speaker 1: in revenue each year from the foreign markets. So when
Speaker 1: I took my kids to India last year, I remember
Speaker 1: waking up jet lag the first day and they were
Speaker 1: already up watching cartoons and we're wired on a bowl
Speaker 1: of chocos. We didn't have chacos in all my years
Speaker 1: agoing in to India though, we never ate breakfast cereals
Speaker 1: and we never ate in from the TV. So it
Speaker 1: was almost jarring to see this American experience transplanted to India.
Speaker 1: But you know, sugar and grain is obviously this winning combination.
Speaker 1: But I have seen a few reports about sagging sales
Speaker 1: as more and more people opt for, you know, either
Speaker 1: easier or healthier breakfast options, so pop tarts or avocado
Speaker 1: toast or you know, maybe a quick trip to the
Speaker 1: drive through on the way to work. And and of
Speaker 1: course there's this growing segment of the population that just
Speaker 1: doesn't eat breakfast period. So when you were listing those
Speaker 1: easier and healthier options and you said pop tarts, which
Speaker 1: one of them, I'm guessing that's the easier option there.
Speaker 1: But they are delicious well as big as the cereal
Speaker 1: industry is today, There's no question that it used to
Speaker 1: be bigger. According to NPR, serial consumption peaked right around
Speaker 1: nine I guess it was, and has steadily gone downhill
Speaker 1: ever since, generally by a full percentage point each year.
Speaker 1: And while the stuff you mentioned is definitely played a
Speaker 1: part in that decline, it's really due to a combination
Speaker 1: of factors. You know. For example, back in lawmakers passed
Speaker 1: the Nutrition and Labeling Education Act, and that made it
Speaker 1: mandatory for all products to include the now commonplace list
Speaker 1: of nutrition facts on the packaging. And this made it
Speaker 1: easier than ever for consumers to see the nutritional value
Speaker 1: or lack thereof, I guess, and they could look at
Speaker 1: this and all of their cereals now at this point,
Speaker 1: and as more people became edge caated about just how
Speaker 1: much sugar and carves they were eating or feeding to
Speaker 1: their kids, you know, they started to think twice before
Speaker 1: tossing a box in the car whenever they're with grocery store.
Speaker 1: So I looked into just how sugary cereal can be,
Speaker 1: and it's insane, Like the whole cereal industry uses around
Speaker 1: eight hundred sixty million pounds of sugar in its products
Speaker 1: every year, and apparently most of that's going into honey Smacks.
Speaker 1: You know, for some reason, you don't know out there,
Speaker 1: that's the one with the cool frog wearing the backwards
Speaker 1: baseball cap on the box. I thought you were talking
Speaker 1: to me for a second, was like, I know, honey Smacks, mango,
Speaker 1: Come on, Well, honey Smacks is consistently ranked the worst
Speaker 1: cereal for your health because it has less than two
Speaker 1: grams of five or per serving and its ingredients breakdown
Speaker 1: to almost sixty sugar. It's tasty, but according to the
Speaker 1: Environmental and Working Group, there's more sugar in one cup
Speaker 1: serving of honey Smacks than there isn't a Hostess twinkie,
Speaker 1: no way. I know that it's sweet, obviously, and I
Speaker 1: knew it wasn't good for you, But honestly, the taste
Speaker 1: of honey Smacks, I wouldn't have guessed it was the
Speaker 1: most sugary cereal. But it kind of makes my teeth
Speaker 1: are just thinking about that. And you know that that
Speaker 1: sugar to fiber ratio might make us cringe. But there's
Speaker 1: one particular serial leading demographic that you're not going to
Speaker 1: hear complaining about this, and that's kids, or at least
Speaker 1: my kids. Yeah, my kids to Actually, do you remember
Speaker 1: there was this great Calvin and Hobbs where Calvin's eating
Speaker 1: his favorite cereal. I think it's something like chocolate frostage
Speaker 1: sugar bombs, and he gives Hobbs a try, and Hobbs
Speaker 1: just starts shaking, gagging from the sweetness, and Calvin says,
Speaker 1: actually they're kind of blend until he scoops some sugar on.
Speaker 1: But what I find really interesting is how deeply ingrained
Speaker 1: the fondness for breakfast cereal is and so many people,
Speaker 1: and how so much of that seems rooted in their childhood. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean, i'd say for most adults serial leaders, it's
Speaker 1: a big part of the allure. I mean, it's what
Speaker 1: you were saying about your kids. There's these memories of
Speaker 1: watching Saturday morning cartoons with a big bowl of Captain
Speaker 1: Crunch in your hand, or maybe indulging in a late
Speaker 1: night fix of Lucky Charms sitting in your college dorm.
Speaker 1: I don't know who you're talking about, right, Well, it's
Speaker 1: sort of a comfort food in a way. I mean,
Speaker 1: it takes us back to simpler days when most of
Speaker 1: us were a little more carefree about what we ate
Speaker 1: and why. Yeah, so nostalgia is definitely a strong factor. Actually, well,
Speaker 1: what are some of the weirdest discontinued cereals you can
Speaker 1: think of? I was trying to think about this earlier,
Speaker 1: and I remember seeing cuber cereal when I was a kid.
Speaker 1: Do you remember Cuberta that video game character? And and
Speaker 1: also eating one with smurfberries. Like, my parents only really
Speaker 1: bought us sugar cereals for maybe a year or two,
Speaker 1: but I remember sampling some weird ones. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: I always thought it was completely bonkers that some cereals
Speaker 1: didn't even mask the fact that they were candy, Like
Speaker 1: you know, Kellogg's did a candy corn Pops. But even
Speaker 1: more blatant than that, there was a Nerds Cereal and
Speaker 1: I'm ticked off that I never tried it Nerds Cereal,
Speaker 1: by the way, listeners, I just wanted to break for
Speaker 1: a second because Will and I have been debating what
Speaker 1: the official candy of Part Time Genius should be, and
Speaker 1: Will was saying it should be atomic fireballs, and I
Speaker 1: was thinking Nerds. So if you have any thoughts on this,
Speaker 1: please let us know on Facebook or Twitter. But well,
Speaker 1: you're right, nerds, cereal is insane. But looking back, like
Speaker 1: the box was so cool. It came in these two flavors,
Speaker 1: just like the candies, and you could pour orange out
Speaker 1: of one side and cherry out of the other. Can
Speaker 1: you imagine, Like, who would let their kids buy this? Probably?
Speaker 1: It also makes me wonder like if so much a
Speaker 1: serials appeal is rooted in the past, Like what does
Speaker 1: this say about our future? Well, you know, there's a
Speaker 1: new generation of kids getting hooked on cereal now, and
Speaker 1: many of them will stick with it into adulthood. And
Speaker 1: that's part of the reason there's so many brands duking
Speaker 1: it out, you know, trying to get kids to eat
Speaker 1: these cereal is because people's breakfast routines tend to be
Speaker 1: the same, you know, pretty much every day. But there's
Speaker 1: another point to consider, and those declining sales numbers we
Speaker 1: mentioned earlier also coincide with declining birth rate, So you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's not like the birthrate will ever drop to
Speaker 1: zero or anything like that, but fewer kids does result
Speaker 1: than fewer cereal fans, obviously. Yeah, It's it's funny that
Speaker 1: something that started out as health food became so dependent
Speaker 1: on selling sugar to kids. But I guess that's usually
Speaker 1: how it goes with food trends. Like someone with these
Speaker 1: very altruistic intentions gets the ball rolling, hoping to better society,
Speaker 1: and and then you know, at a certain point, the
Speaker 1: marketing team steps in writing eximally. Yeah. Dr Kellogg used
Speaker 1: to give lectures about his methods for leading a healthy lifestyle,
Speaker 1: and he would sometimes give out the recipes for his
Speaker 1: corn Flix so that people could make them at home.
Speaker 1: And at one talk he told the crowd, you may
Speaker 1: say I'm destroying the health food business here by giving
Speaker 1: these recipes, but I'm not after the business. I'm after reform.
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah. He really did seem to believe and
Speaker 1: what he was selling, sure, But the problem was that
Speaker 1: the same couldn't be said of his brother, Will Kellogg.
Speaker 1: And and Will try for years to convince his brother
Speaker 1: to add sugar to their cereal, believing it would add
Speaker 1: some flavor to what he called horse food. But the
Speaker 1: tipping point came into late forties when their competitor Post
Speaker 1: Cereals released Sugar Crisp. So Posted branched out beyond the
Speaker 1: health food market with its first sugarcoated sea and like
Speaker 1: it or not, Kellogg kind of had to follow the suit. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but it's really post World War Two that the industry
Speaker 1: started to focus on marketing directly to kids. I mean,
Speaker 1: companies had dabbled with these ads before, including Kellogg's use
Speaker 1: of Snap, Crackle and Pop as the characters for Rice Crispies,
Speaker 1: and that marketing began in the nineteen thirties. But even
Speaker 1: with cartoon gnomes pleading their case, you know, these highly
Speaker 1: processed oats and grains were a tough sell without adding something,
Speaker 1: you know, sweet to it. That's crazy though, I like,
Speaker 1: I had no idea that the Rice Christie's trio had
Speaker 1: been around that long. I thought they were post fifties
Speaker 1: like most other cereal mascots. Yeah, Snap cracklin Pop are
Speaker 1: actually one of the longest running ad campaigns in history,
Speaker 1: and as I was looking up at that, they're actually
Speaker 1: the longest for cereal brands. Actually, by the way, did
Speaker 1: you know that their names are on amount of pia
Speaker 1: sounds for what you hear when milk is added to
Speaker 1: the cereal. But apparently Rice Crispies were always marketed as
Speaker 1: the cereal you can hear, and this was even before
Speaker 1: the mascots came along. In fact, the guy who created
Speaker 1: the characters did so after being inspired by one of
Speaker 1: the brand's previous radio jingles. Because I know you're dying
Speaker 1: to know what it was. You're the lyrics, I jotted
Speaker 1: them down, So all right, listen to the fairy song
Speaker 1: of help the Mary Corus sung by Kelloggs Rice Crispies
Speaker 1: as they merrily snap, crackle and pop in a bowl
Speaker 1: of milk. If you've never heard food talking, now is
Speaker 1: your chance. I'm so hungry for a bowl of cereal. Now,
Speaker 1: why didn't we do this before? And also that was
Speaker 1: a jingle like it doesn't even rive. I was I
Speaker 1: was gonna put it to song that I just made
Speaker 1: up sided against it. So, I mean, obviously mascots were
Speaker 1: a smart move, since it's hard to market like a
Speaker 1: fairy song of health without them. But wasn't there also
Speaker 1: a fourth gnome for a while, Yeah, you bet there
Speaker 1: was Pal He stood for the serials nutritional punch, I think,
Speaker 1: And of course he didn't last very long. But let's
Speaker 1: get this back on track. So gradually the Sweden Cereals
Speaker 1: come to dominate the market, thanks, you know, because of
Speaker 1: product placement and children's programming and they've never looked back since.
Speaker 1: And in fact, the breakfast Cereal industry is still one
Speaker 1: of the top spenders for a commercial air time. More
Speaker 1: than a million series adds air on TV each year,
Speaker 1: which cost companies like Posting Kellogg's more than I want
Speaker 1: to say, like half a billion dollars. Yeah, well so,
Speaker 1: so all those old TV ads are a big part
Speaker 1: of why Cold Cereal took such a hold in the
Speaker 1: hearts and minds of baby boomers, and then they of
Speaker 1: course passed on that fondness to their now adult children.
Speaker 1: But you know, there's another element that helped in dear
Speaker 1: entire generations to breakfast Cereal that I want to talk
Speaker 1: about it, and that's the prizes that came packed inside
Speaker 1: those boxes. I mean, the prizes played such a big role.
Speaker 1: Like I might have wanted a box of Cookie Crisp,
Speaker 1: but if the Apple Jacks had one of those wacky
Speaker 1: wall walkers in it, I mean you remember those sticky
Speaker 1: octopuses that were walked down the wall of course. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and then of course that's the box I'd end up with. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm with you on that. Actually I would
Speaker 1: buy a box of cereal for one of those. Now
Speaker 1: it's been years since I played, and they were awesome.
Speaker 1: But you know, let's talk a little bit about how
Speaker 1: toys and games ended up inside the boxes, as well
Speaker 1: as some of the coolest and strangest ones to come
Speaker 1: along over the years. But before we do that, let's
Speaker 1: break for a quiz. Then we've got Gabe Fonseca on
Speaker 1: the program. Now, gabees an accomplished TV writer, but he's
Speaker 1: also got the best unboxing series on YouTube. It's called
Speaker 1: Serial Time TV, and this is where he unboxes and
Speaker 1: reviews incredible breakfast cereals. Welcome to Part Time Genius, Gabe,
Speaker 1: Thanks for having me. I'm I'm a fan of the podcast,
Speaker 1: so I'm honored to be on the show. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much. Now, I know you're out in Los Angeles.
Speaker 1: Man Guesh is actually on vacation today. He's out on
Speaker 1: your coast in Portland's so he sends his best But
Speaker 1: but I hope you're still willing to chat with me today,
Speaker 1: of course, of course. All right, now, so, Gay, we've
Speaker 1: read that you have over three hundred Cereal boxes in
Speaker 1: your collection, and I have to ask, like, how did
Speaker 1: you get into this? In the first place, and what
Speaker 1: are some of your more prized cereal boxes. You know,
Speaker 1: I've always been a collector, and I think at one
Speaker 1: point I saw Old Spider Man, So I think that
Speaker 1: was my first box. Um, it was from Zerio and
Speaker 1: I saw it on eBay when I was just browsing,
Speaker 1: and I was like, that'd be cool to have on
Speaker 1: my bookshelf, and I bought it and then uh, and
Speaker 1: then I was like, well, you know what, there are
Speaker 1: some other ones that I remember from back in the day,
Speaker 1: and and then it kind of just turned into this
Speaker 1: black hole on eBay where I just was was scouring
Speaker 1: and finding old cereals that that brought back to these
Speaker 1: nostalgic memories to me. Wow. Wow, Now I think I've
Speaker 1: read that you've tried some even some like thirty year
Speaker 1: old cereals. Is this right? Yeah? Yeah. When I first
Speaker 1: started this unboxing channel on YouTube, and I started it
Speaker 1: because I started to run out a room of just
Speaker 1: having these unopened cereal boxes on my shelf and it
Speaker 1: was like, you know, this is just taking up space
Speaker 1: and this is kind of silly. I could just flatten
Speaker 1: them out, so I I decided like, well, let's for posterity.
Speaker 1: Let's just record myself opening these boxes and and you know,
Speaker 1: recording with the cereal looks like and documenting it so
Speaker 1: I'll have it, you know, for posterity. And uh. And
Speaker 1: I never thought I was like going to try him,
Speaker 1: and then I'd opened some boxes and uh, I'd be like, well,
Speaker 1: let me just see if it holds up. I think
Speaker 1: the oldest one I might have tried was a grim
Speaker 1: smiles giggles and last cereal, which was from the seventies,
Speaker 1: I believe, and it was pretty grass guessing. Oh man,
Speaker 1: they're terrible. They just don't you know. It tastes mostly
Speaker 1: like it tastes like the plastic in a way. It
Speaker 1: takes great toxic and disgusting. But I would I definitely
Speaker 1: do not recommend it. I can't imagine now. In terms
Speaker 1: of cereals, are there any that you wish you could
Speaker 1: have tasted if you could go back in time? Yeah. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: There's one from before my time, in the seventies called
Speaker 1: It's a Great Fellow. It was actually, um they released
Speaker 1: a Great Fellow and Baron von red Berry. There were
Speaker 1: General Mills cereals and uh, this is a Great Fellow
Speaker 1: one tasted like you know, grape the grape cereal or
Speaker 1: grape kool aid, I imagine I never actually got to
Speaker 1: try it, but I'm a I'm a sucker for great
Speaker 1: flavored things. And uh and even though I got a
Speaker 1: Nerds cereal which came out in the eighties, which I
Speaker 1: which I got to try back and back then, I
Speaker 1: it just wasn't the same, you know, it wasn't it
Speaker 1: wasn't that great great flavor. It was kind of it
Speaker 1: wasn't a great cereal, and Sir, great fellow, just just
Speaker 1: like I look at the ad campaigns I see on
Speaker 1: YouTube and I'm just like this, this was like, this
Speaker 1: is great. I really wish I was alive for this one.
Speaker 1: I could I could try that one. Yeah yeah, Now,
Speaker 1: how about any boxes you'd love to add to your
Speaker 1: collection but haven't been able to get ahold of? For me?
Speaker 1: I I kind of at this point, I feel like
Speaker 1: I'm at peace and I've kind of completed my collection
Speaker 1: and kind of everything I want. There is one really
Speaker 1: random cereal from General Mills in the nineties. It was
Speaker 1: called Buen Alitos, and I remember it. It was on
Speaker 1: shelves for a limited time, and I just can't find
Speaker 1: a box of that anywhere, and that's probably like the
Speaker 1: last you know, my great you know, white whale that
Speaker 1: I'm trying to obtain. Still, I don't know, Gabe. I'm
Speaker 1: hearing in your voice that maybe you're not quite at
Speaker 1: piece yet until you find that so off, if if,
Speaker 1: if any of our listeners out there know how to
Speaker 1: get ahold of some did you say bueno altos? Yes,
Speaker 1: all right, we'll see what we can do for you.
Speaker 1: There'll be a free part time Genius t shirt on
Speaker 1: the line for these people. But but before we let
Speaker 1: you go, Mango did leave me a quiz titled the
Speaker 1: Most Important Meal Quiz of the Day. So I'm gonna
Speaker 1: ask you a few questions if you obscure serial questions,
Speaker 1: and all you gotta do is answer them. How does
Speaker 1: that sound? All right? I'll give it my best, alright?
Speaker 1: Question number one. According to a nineteen fifty six confidential
Speaker 1: magazine report, what breakfast cereal was supposedly responsible for Frank
Speaker 1: Sinatra's success with women? It is Wheaties. Yeah. The article
Speaker 1: claimed that Sinatra could thank Wheati's for his reputation as
Speaker 1: the quote Tarzan of the Boudoir. So yes, congratulations there, alright?
Speaker 1: One for one. Question number two. Before a certain tiger
Speaker 1: became spokes animal for this breakfast cereal, he had to
Speaker 1: beat out three other contenders, Elmo the Elephant, Newt the
Speaker 1: new and Katie the Kangaroo. What cereal are we talking about?
Speaker 1: That's right, it's frosted flakes. Now. Katie actually appeared on
Speaker 1: boxes in the nineteen fifties before Tony the Tiger started
Speaker 1: out selling her. All Right, here we go. Question number three.
Speaker 1: What popular breakfast cereal created by John Harvey Kellogg was
Speaker 1: eating aboard the Apollo eleven cereal? Christie. It's a pretty
Speaker 1: good guess. It was actually Kellogg's corn legs, and so
Speaker 1: the cereal was mixed up with fruit and formed into
Speaker 1: cube since eating it with milk was impossible without gravity. Alright,
Speaker 1: two for three the last question here the big prize
Speaker 1: is on the line. While Saddam Hussein loved Raisin brand
Speaker 1: and requested it for breakfast in prison, he detested this cereal. Oh,
Speaker 1: I actually read the article about that fruit. Yes, it
Speaker 1: is fruit looks and according to US soldiers, one of
Speaker 1: the few times he actually looked defeated in prison was
Speaker 1: when a bowl of the fruity cereal was brought to him.
Speaker 1: But so congratulations you got three out of four, which
Speaker 1: qualifies you for our top prize, which is a note
Speaker 1: to your mom or your boss singing your praises. So, Gabe,
Speaker 1: congratulations and thanks so much for joining us on Part
Speaker 1: Time Genius. Well thanks for having me. Well it's been
Speaker 1: it's great. Thank you very much. You're listening to Part
Speaker 1: Time Genius and we're talking about the heyday of breakfast cereal.
Speaker 1: You know, when kids became the target market, and nutrition
Speaker 1: kind of took a backseat to things like marshmallows and prizes,
Speaker 1: and you know, speaking of cereal box prizes, you know,
Speaker 1: those were another way that Kelloggs tried to attract kids
Speaker 1: to cereal in the pre sugar days and three the
Speaker 1: company started putting pen back buttons inside boxes of their
Speaker 1: pep cereal. So they started with a series of thirty
Speaker 1: six pins that featured World War two squadron insignia from
Speaker 1: the US military. And this was before switching over to
Speaker 1: fictional heroes like comic book characters. Yeah, so those are
Speaker 1: some of the earliest inbox prizes we know about. But
Speaker 1: if we're talking buttons, my favorites are the Urkel for
Speaker 1: President campaign buttons they were giving out during the Clinton
Speaker 1: Bush Senior campaign. Do you remember those? We're talking Steve
Speaker 1: Urkel from family that I can't say I remember him
Speaker 1: running for president? But what what cereal was that? Kels?
Speaker 1: Of course, it was one of those short lived novelty
Speaker 1: cereals that crops up for a few months and then disappears,
Speaker 1: like basically it was a sweeter version of cheerios, but
Speaker 1: wackier with banana and strawberry flavors. But uh, obviously we're
Speaker 1: getting ahead of ourselves with all these in the box
Speaker 1: buttons because Kellogg's actually got into the prize game long
Speaker 1: before that. In the earlier days, the prizes, or premiums
Speaker 1: as they're called in the industry, weren't in the box
Speaker 1: at all. And as far as we know, the first
Speaker 1: prize used to market cereal was this nine nine children's book.
Speaker 1: It was called the Funny Jungle Land Moving Pictures Book,
Speaker 1: and it was given to customers who bought two boxes
Speaker 1: of Kellogg's corn flakes that they're participating grocery stores. After
Speaker 1: a couple of years, of course, Kellogg's decided to stop
Speaker 1: handing out the books on location instead offered them as
Speaker 1: mail and offer, and within four years the company had
Speaker 1: distributed two point five million copies of the book, Isn't
Speaker 1: that insane? Like? It was obviously a hit with customers,
Speaker 1: so Kellogg's kept releasing new editions, and they kept going
Speaker 1: on with jungle Land books all the way up until
Speaker 1: ninety seven. I mean, I guess that's pretty cool. I
Speaker 1: have to say I was never a fan of those
Speaker 1: mail in prizes. I mean, I was all about the
Speaker 1: instant gratification. You don't want to dig in there, like
Speaker 1: get elbow deep and some cocoa puffs or something and
Speaker 1: then just be able to like fish around and find
Speaker 1: that cellophane bag. Yeah, and then you got to eat
Speaker 1: the cereal dust off your arm. But those were definitely
Speaker 1: the days. But I never really minded the mail ins,
Speaker 1: like I think it was partly the joy of receiving
Speaker 1: any kind of mail as a kid. The fact that
Speaker 1: anyone was sending me anything was exciting enough, even if
Speaker 1: I had to save up like a bunch of box
Speaker 1: tops and wait six to eight weeks to make it happen.
Speaker 1: Though that was mostly dying out by the time we
Speaker 1: were kids. I only remember doing it a few times.
Speaker 1: But you know that the real reason the cereal industry
Speaker 1: stepped up its game and the prize game specifically in
Speaker 1: the nineteen fifties is pretty interesting. And it's it's thanks
Speaker 1: to this invention of what was called the screw injection
Speaker 1: molding machine and and and that's what made plastic prizes
Speaker 1: faster and cheaper to produce. And this wasn't the only
Speaker 1: time the inventor of injection molding his name was James
Speaker 1: Watson Henry would lend a hand to cereal prizes. So
Speaker 1: in the nineteen seventies, Henry's developed the first gas assistant
Speaker 1: injection molding process, and this is what made it possible
Speaker 1: to produce these finally detailed hollow plastic objects, you know,
Speaker 1: the ones that environmental groups love so much. This cut
Speaker 1: cost even more and paved the way to a golden
Speaker 1: age of these in box serial prizes. That explains why
Speaker 1: so many of the cool prizes I found were from
Speaker 1: the sixties and seventies. And and of course I'd be
Speaker 1: remiss if we didn't mention the Boson's whistle that came
Speaker 1: inside the box of Captain Crunch in the early seventies.
Speaker 1: If we're talking about things, we'd be remiss not mentioning
Speaker 1: about Captain Crunch, what about Gen Lafoote, which was Captain
Speaker 1: Crunch's stinky, barefooted rival. But anyway, going with your whistle story, well,
Speaker 1: obviously the whistles just like really high pitched little whistle,
Speaker 1: and the Boson's whistle was one that was historically used
Speaker 1: on naval ships when commanders need to pass orders to
Speaker 1: the crew but couldn't be heard because of the waves
Speaker 1: or weather or whatever. And these days it's mostly used
Speaker 1: in naval ceremonies. But in Captain Crunch's case, it turned
Speaker 1: out that when you covered one of the whisp those
Speaker 1: holes in blue, it produced this frequency of hurts, which
Speaker 1: was the exact tone a T and T used to
Speaker 1: control its long distance lines. And basically, this legendary hacker,
Speaker 1: John Thomas Draper, who was also known as Captain Crunch
Speaker 1: or Crunch or crunch Man, he learned that he could
Speaker 1: use one of the whistles to hack the phone system
Speaker 1: and get free long distance calls. I love that they
Speaker 1: figured that. It's why that old hacking magazine was actually
Speaker 1: called hundred, and then why Steve Jobs and Steve Woes
Speaker 1: even tracked down the whistle and built a box that
Speaker 1: replicated the frequency to try and prank call the Pope.
Speaker 1: I love that as I love that they pretended to
Speaker 1: be Henry Kissinger. And it almost got there until this
Speaker 1: like suspicious bishop caught on like and and then the
Speaker 1: Pope didn't get on those pesky bishops. And you know,
Speaker 1: while injection molding allowed for all kinds of awesome plastic toys,
Speaker 1: you know, some of the funniest ones that came across
Speaker 1: were actually even like metal, or some of them even paper.
Speaker 1: Like in nineteen fifty four, Wheaties gave away these miniature
Speaker 1: state license plates and they were made of solid steel,
Speaker 1: and you got one in each box, but you could
Speaker 1: also buy them in four sets of twelve by mailing
Speaker 1: in a box top and a quarter a whopping quarter.
Speaker 1: And that was the only hitch to this was that
Speaker 1: Alaska and Hawaii had not yet become states, so there
Speaker 1: were actually only forty eight plates and all man So
Speaker 1: do you think people were like pissed when those two
Speaker 1: states got statehood a few years later and suddenly their
Speaker 1: collections were incomplete? Well, actually, Post Serials did release a
Speaker 1: set of the full fifty later on, but apparently wed
Speaker 1: still gets letters about the original campaign to this day.
Speaker 1: So maybe there's still a few determined fans out there
Speaker 1: just pestering them about their missing plates or something. I
Speaker 1: hope so. But one of the most unique prizes I
Speaker 1: read about was this paper prize. It was a deed
Speaker 1: to one inch of land in the Yukon, so like
Speaker 1: a serial company was giving away land by the inch. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a great idea, right, So Quaker Oaths sponsored a
Speaker 1: show in the fifties called Sergeant Preston of the Yukon.
Speaker 1: You remember Sergeant President of the Yukon, And this was
Speaker 1: their way of linking the show to the product and
Speaker 1: full disclosure, this was a mail in prize, but this
Speaker 1: one was totally worth the weight. So for just a
Speaker 1: single box top kids would receive a deed for one
Speaker 1: square inch of the nineteen acres of Yukon territory that
Speaker 1: Quaker purchased, and they actually purchased this from the Canadian
Speaker 1: government for a thousand dollars. The promotion was this massive success,
Speaker 1: and Quaker actually sent out more than twenty one million
Speaker 1: deeds in just a few weeks away. Yeah, and then
Speaker 1: lots of people would write the company or even the
Speaker 1: Canadian government from time to time to check in on
Speaker 1: their property, but sadly the reply was not good news.
Speaker 1: Apparently none of the deed holders were actually landowners because
Speaker 1: the individual deeds were never formally registered after the recipients
Speaker 1: signed them, I know. And in the end, Canada repossessed
Speaker 1: all the land in nineteen sixty five due to non
Speaker 1: payment of get this, thirty seven dollars and twenty cents
Speaker 1: in property taxes. You know. I mean. It also reminds
Speaker 1: me of the time during the eighties when General Mills
Speaker 1: started giving out actual one dollar bills as prizes and
Speaker 1: boxes of cherios, which it just sounds kind of like lazy,
Speaker 1: like let's let's just put a dollar in there, and
Speaker 1: except in this case the prize was actually worth something. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it's way better than the promotion Cheerios offered in
Speaker 1: the fifties when they gave away color reproductions of Confederate
Speaker 1: money and an album to keep them in. Oh, that's
Speaker 1: so strange. I actually I think I'd rather have the
Speaker 1: phony d than But we sort of transition into these
Speaker 1: more lackluster I don't know, dare I say, like crappy prizes,
Speaker 1: but honestly, at least they're still prizes. And and much
Speaker 1: like serial sales, serial premiums seemed to be on the
Speaker 1: decline these days. Yeah, so I noticed last time I
Speaker 1: was in cerealisles there seemed to be fewer boxes advertising
Speaker 1: physical prizes, but there were a bunch of boxes offering
Speaker 1: some kind of digital prize, like access to an online
Speaker 1: video game. And I I guess serial premiums changed to
Speaker 1: reflect the times and and most kids these days would
Speaker 1: prefer some type of like instant online entertainment over a
Speaker 1: plastic figure. But I also read a report from the
Speaker 1: Center for Science and the Public Interest and it determined
Speaker 1: that it was far cheaper to make an online and
Speaker 1: then to produce a traditional plastic premium, and that definitely
Speaker 1: figures into the decision to scale back the physical prizes. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think you're right. And not to mention that there
Speaker 1: have been a few safety scares that lead to recalls
Speaker 1: on millions and millions of these plastic prizes that were
Speaker 1: deemed choking hazards, and that's actually the reason prizes were
Speaker 1: moved from the inside of the Cereal bag itself to
Speaker 1: between the bag and the box lining. This happened in
Speaker 1: the early nineties. Is you know Sereal companies saw that
Speaker 1: this was kind of a risk or a great risk
Speaker 1: if kids accidentally started gobbling up these prizes. It's it's
Speaker 1: funny because Crackerjack went through like a similar adjustment with
Speaker 1: the prizes inside their boxes and concerns about safety and
Speaker 1: rising cost of production next anything but paper prizes, whereas
Speaker 1: they used to have really cool stuff in there, like
Speaker 1: Dakota rings and tin soldiers mixed in. And and since
Speaker 1: Crackerjack was the first food to actually offer box prizes
Speaker 1: way back in, it kind of seems fitting that cereal
Speaker 1: premiums would follow suit. Yeah, I mean that's true. But
Speaker 1: but but all is not lost for these in the
Speaker 1: box cereal prizes. I mean there's still some physical knickknacks
Speaker 1: sprinkled in there, but most of these are just tie
Speaker 1: in with usually like big media events or maybe movie releases.
Speaker 1: You know, the new Star Wars movie had some of
Speaker 1: these accompany that. And besides, there's another serial philosophy that
Speaker 1: suggests it's what's on the outside of the box that matters,
Speaker 1: not the inside. Okay, mango, So we've covered the actual
Speaker 1: cereal as well as the cool prizes that you find
Speaker 1: inside the bag or just outside it. So how about
Speaker 1: we conclude our anatomical tour of the cereal box by
Speaker 1: focusing on the box itself. Yeah, that sounds good, So
Speaker 1: I'll start us off with a little cereal box psychology.
Speaker 1: Back in two thousand fourteen, researchers from the Cornell Food
Speaker 1: and Brand Lab study eighties six different cereal box mascots
Speaker 1: and ten grocery stores throughout New York in Connecticut. And
Speaker 1: from this whirlwind tour, they found that boxes are strategically
Speaker 1: positioned to make eye contact with children. On average, the
Speaker 1: kid targeted cereal boxes are placed on the lower shelves,
Speaker 1: usually at a height of twenty three inches, while adult
Speaker 1: and cereals tend to sit higher at forty eight inch shelves.
Speaker 1: And uh to capital is on this ideal. Like the
Speaker 1: mascots on the kids cereal boxes tend to feature mascots
Speaker 1: with eyes pointing downward an average angle of nine point
Speaker 1: six degrees, but the spokes characters on boxes of adult
Speaker 1: cereal generally looks straight ahead. Wow, that's almost kind of creepy.
Speaker 1: And so both the manufacturer and the retailer in on
Speaker 1: this scheme, and and and they wanted to make eye
Speaker 1: contact with their target markets. But so why is that?
Speaker 1: I mean, I understand wanting your product as visible as
Speaker 1: possible so it attracts more attention, but why is making
Speaker 1: eye contact with the character or the spokesperson matter that much? Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: that was the question behind a second study where researchers
Speaker 1: looked into how much eye contact with Cereal box characters
Speaker 1: influences people's feelings towards the brand, and they asked sixty
Speaker 1: three participants from a private Northeastern university to examine a
Speaker 1: box of Tricks Cereal and rate their feelings of trust
Speaker 1: and connection to the brand. And the catch was that
Speaker 1: some participants were given a box where the tricks rabbit
Speaker 1: was looking straight ahead and others had this box where
Speaker 1: the rabbit was looking away or down from the view.
Speaker 1: And I'm guessing people preferred, you know, whichever rabbit was
Speaker 1: looking their way or Yeah, but by a wide margin.
Speaker 1: It's really incredible. So the finding showed that participants who
Speaker 1: had eye contact with the rabbit felt more brand trust
Speaker 1: Proba Shilly rabbit, and their feeling of connection to the
Speaker 1: brand was twenty eight percent higher than participants who looked
Speaker 1: at a box of tricks with the rabbit looking away
Speaker 1: and not only that were participants who made eye contact
Speaker 1: with rabbit actually said they enjoyed the serial more compared
Speaker 1: with another cereal that lacked eye contact component. Way, I mean,
Speaker 1: that's so creepy, like it's it's also notes that looking
Speaker 1: at the picture of a cartoon rabbit in the eyes
Speaker 1: can generate so much good will and actually cause us
Speaker 1: to buy their party, and the fact that they chose
Speaker 1: this crazy rabbit that it works is just baffling. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but there's an upside to the research because now healthy
Speaker 1: cereals that are well intentioned can actually make mascots that
Speaker 1: do the same thing. Yeah, but you know, I don't
Speaker 1: want to leave the subject of Tricks because actually I
Speaker 1: found some interesting stuff during our research here. So for
Speaker 1: as that, did you know that before he was an
Speaker 1: animated character, the Tricks rabbit was this really like Jankee
Speaker 1: looking hand puppets, and I guess General Mills it was.
Speaker 1: You know, they were unsure early on of how to
Speaker 1: sell the concept of a serial obsessed rabbit, because you know,
Speaker 1: the original slogan for the cereal was I'm a rabbit,
Speaker 1: and rabbits are supposed to like carrots, but I hate carrots.
Speaker 1: I like tricks. That really rolls off the tongue. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it also makes the whole silly Rabbit Tricks Are
Speaker 1: for Kids campaign sound like poetry. Yeah. But that campaign
Speaker 1: had problems of its own. I mean, for one thing,
Speaker 1: it made General Mills worry that they were sending a
Speaker 1: bad message, you know, by having this rabbit continually failed
Speaker 1: to achieve his goal. You know, but where Charles Schultz
Speaker 1: concluded that Charlie Brown missing the football was what made
Speaker 1: the whole thing work. General Mills took the more democratic
Speaker 1: round in nineteen seventy six. They put this question to
Speaker 1: a vote, should the tricks rabbit finally get to eat
Speaker 1: the cereal? He craves and kids also turned out to
Speaker 1: be more merciful than Schultza, so almost a hundred percent
Speaker 1: of the votes were in favor of giving the rabbit
Speaker 1: his long away bowl. And that same verdict came again
Speaker 1: during a campaign I think it was in nineteen eighty,
Speaker 1: which was the last time the rabbit got his own
Speaker 1: bowl of tricks. That's been a long time. I mean,
Speaker 1: you can tell why he's jones in for a bowl,
Speaker 1: No kidding, I mean, so these sereal mascots tend to
Speaker 1: break down into two camps. So there's the more laid back, confident,
Speaker 1: relaxed characters like Tony the Tiger or the Golden Crisp Bear,
Speaker 1: and they mostly sell cereal on the basis of their
Speaker 1: friendly demeanor and cool look. I mean, how cool is
Speaker 1: Tony know, bandana jacket awesome? You know. And then that's
Speaker 1: these unhinged cereal junkies who looked like they just, I
Speaker 1: don't know, like busted out of the looney bin. So
Speaker 1: these are your tricks Rabbits and Sonny the Cuckoo Bird
Speaker 1: and like all of these crazy characters. Yeah, those guys
Speaker 1: are pretty terrifying and and most of their designs have
Speaker 1: only gotten more over the top as time's gone by.
Speaker 1: What do you mean by that? So too can Sam
Speaker 1: used to have the proportions of an actual bird, but
Speaker 1: you know his body, shave, wings and feet have slowly
Speaker 1: more human like, and and the colors too, like they're
Speaker 1: all super exaggerated and brighter and bolder, and it's crazy.
Speaker 1: And actually, have you seen Captain Crunch's latest look? Like
Speaker 1: he used to be this old, weary sea captain but
Speaker 1: now he has these huge popping eyes and wide grin
Speaker 1: and even his eyebrows have gotten more excited, like their
Speaker 1: way up over his hat. Now his hat has eyebrows.
Speaker 1: That's very impressive. Well, I mean there's always been something
Speaker 1: suspect about that guy anyway, if we're being honest that
Speaker 1: did you hear the controversy a few years back somebody
Speaker 1: had noticed that the sleeves of his uniform only had
Speaker 1: three yellow stripes instead of four. I love that people
Speaker 1: are paying this close attention to it, but apparently that
Speaker 1: pegs him as a commander in the Navy, not a captain.
Speaker 1: So to his credit, when fans called him out, Crunch
Speaker 1: took to Twitter to plead his case. And so here's
Speaker 1: what he said, all hearsay and misunderstandings. I captain the
Speaker 1: SS Guppy with my crew, which makes an official captain
Speaker 1: in my book. Besides, it's the Crunch, not the clothes
Speaker 1: that make a man. It almost gives me goose behind.
Speaker 1: It's a great speech. But it's always been my belief
Speaker 1: that the facts make the man. So I think it's
Speaker 1: time for a little fact off. All right, let's do it.
Speaker 1: I'll go first here. So all right, so, speaking of
Speaker 1: Captain Crunch, did did you know that in two thousand
Speaker 1: nine a woman in California filed a class action suit
Speaker 1: against the maker of Captain Crunch's crunch Berries. And she
Speaker 1: did this because she said, for four long years she
Speaker 1: had been eating these crunch berries and thinking they were
Speaker 1: real furuit. I mean, you know, you've got strawberries and blueberries,
Speaker 1: raspberries and of course crunch berries. But of course the
Speaker 1: judge and Sacramento did not see it her way and
Speaker 1: quickly dismissed the suit. So, according to one study commissioned
Speaker 1: by Kellogg, more than ten percent of Americans had tried
Speaker 1: eating cereal with orange juice or coffee instead of milk.
Speaker 1: I mean, is that true, Like, have you ever done that?
Speaker 1: I have never done that before. That would ruin a ball. No,
Speaker 1: absolutely not all. Well, according to a different study, women
Speaker 1: who regularly ate cereal before conception are slightly more likely
Speaker 1: to have boys. There's something about having a high energy
Speaker 1: intake before conceiving that leads to these greater odds, And
Speaker 1: the food that seemed to increase the odds the most
Speaker 1: was cereal. That's crazy. So you're an oatmeal leader, right, well,
Speaker 1: I mean sometimes yeah, yeah, Well do you know that
Speaker 1: the quote strawberries and peaches and quicker instant oatmeal are
Speaker 1: actually dehydrated apples. I didn't know, and the blueberries are
Speaker 1: dehydrated figs. And for a quicker sake, I hope that
Speaker 1: the crunch Ferry Lady doesn't find out. But at least
Speaker 1: the real fruits, that's true. They're real fruits, yeah, unlike
Speaker 1: the crunchberries. So well, as kids, we always heard that
Speaker 1: we should eat a good breakfast anytime we need to
Speaker 1: do anything important that day, and studies do back that up,
Speaker 1: often showing that breakfast eaters will perform about ten percent
Speaker 1: better on memory tests than those who skipped. But it
Speaker 1: also appears that eating not just breakfast, but specifically cereal
Speaker 1: leads to a better mood. So according to research from
Speaker 1: Bristol University, there are long term effects of eating cereal
Speaker 1: for breakfast, and their findings quote, people feel better, serials
Speaker 1: boosted their mood. So I mean, that's just the kind
Speaker 1: of support we needed as serial leaders. And what a
Speaker 1: happy way to end this episode. I'm gonna let you
Speaker 1: take home the trophy this week, and listeners, if there
Speaker 1: are any great seial facts we forgot, please let us know.
Speaker 1: You can always write us at Part Time Genius at
Speaker 1: How Stuff Works dot com or call us on our
Speaker 1: seven fact hotline one eight for four pt Genius. You
Speaker 1: know we love hearing from you well, and don't forget
Speaker 1: to join us again next week when we publish episodes
Speaker 1: asking the questions how big is the US military and
Speaker 1: what are the worst jobs in the world, including a
Speaker 1: peek into the important world of Wales not collecting. That's
Speaker 1: gonna be pretty interesting. Are you sure that's right? Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's right. All right. Well that's it for today's episode.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, Thanks again for listening. Part Time Genius
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Speaker 1: Do we do we forget Jason? Jason who