Remember my post in August about how Kellogg's started to make these cereals that they say are advertised with the Classic Designs of their mascots?
NO? Well here's the link to that blogpost:
https://maverickmartinezarchive.blogspot.com/2023/08/cereals-they-dont-make-them-like-they.html
Anyway, I was shopping for some Ancient Grain Bread from Dempster at my local London Drugs when all of a sudden, I saw this:
My God!!! Kellogg's really wants to cater to those Boomers and Gen Xers, and Millennials who love old box art and are getting sick of that Air-Brushed, CalArts, or clusterf**k graphics crap that's permeating today's cereal boxes so that's why they're releasing these boxes into stores.
Doesn't really matter to me if I get these cereals or not. I don't eat cereal that much anymore due to things like eating late such as in 10AM or so. Another reason is that I would rather have Eggs, Rice, Quesadillas, or whatever I can cook for breakfast because I demand at least a sliver of my own nutrients in my stomach... otherwise... I'd skip breakfast altogether.
In fact, the only cereals I'll occasionally eat every now and then are Cheerios, Corn Pops, or Choco Krispies.
But even then, I tend to eat them at night.
Talk about a sugary day reversal.
However, I have said in my August Cereal post that these retro box arts aren't as accurate as the original boxes are. In fact, I have a hunch that whoever was in Kellogg's Graphics Department had to painstakingly copy these box arts by hand on a Wacom Cintiq.
How can I tell that these are painstakingly copied? Things like graphic placements as well as the inclusion of that RETRO EDITION banner on the box.
As well as having access to a smartphone where I can just Google the images of old Box Arts and man, the results didn't dissapoint.
So here's what I found.
That Box of Frosted Flakes is actually highly accurate to this box of Frosted Flakes shown below which is from the 1960s.
But by this point, Kellogg's wasn't limited only to this box. They had a ton of boxes to go with during that time, even into the 1970s.
Truly a magical presence by Tony the Tiger as originally drawn by Martin Provenson.
So why did Kellogg's ditch this design for these shown below?
"Hey that's me during the 1980s holding a good old 1960's cereal box. I sure was Great in the 60s."
My guess is Kellogg's was pressured by parents that kids need a proper role model for being active and as cute as the original Provensen design was, that particular Tony wasn't the exercise appropriate so Kellogg's took notice and forced a redesign which made Tony more humane...
Did you know Tony the Tiger's animations on those live-action commercials are actually rotoscoped?
Now as for Toucan Sam, well.... it's clearly referencing his 1970s design since that was when they settled in on his final design.
This is what Toucan Sam looked like back in 1963, the year he debuted:
Have you noticed that the Retro box from London Drugs has the artwork flipped?
Whatever, Toucan Sam almost got the axe in 2020 when some bastard in the graphics department decided to change Sam's design to be more like those awful CalArts style designs mandated by today's showrunners.
I don't have a reference image to show you but the 2020 redesign was so bad that people demanded that they change Sam's design back to what it was.
Speaking about that, I remember back in 2016 and the first half of 2017, General Mills got into a lot of trouble with Cereal Buyers when they changed Lucky the Leprechaun's design to that awful CalArts style the marketing department was so obsessed with.
LGR didn't mind it in 2017....
Ok. I take it back. He agrees that 2016 Lucky the Leprechaun was awful.
Good thing General Mills went back to the classic...... 90s design.
These photos are of him eating the 2016 Lucky Charms out of spite.
Considering General Mills also got backlash back in 2016 for doing the same thing to Lucky the Leprechaun, Kellogg's decided to do what General Mills did by reverting Toucan Sam back to his original design in 2021 and suddenly, people were ok with it.
However, these were the only cereal boxes I could find at my London Drugs and I can hazard a guess these are limited time offerings so don't push your luck with having these as everyday shopping shelve fixtures.
Also, I noticed something on these boxes:
Are those Free toys in Boxes?
And John K. has been bitching on his blog about how modern cereal boxes were doing away with actual toys and cardboard box factories, instead going for sweepstakes, movie ticket vouchers, etc.
However, I'm a bit too old for these Frisbees, unless I have a dog to play with. And I can hazard a guess those Frisbees are going to be made with cheap plastic.
I'd rather go for Box Top sweepstake where you can at least earn a chance to win a free gaming computer from XIDAX Elite Rigs or Hyper-X.
Speaking about cereal box tops, I read someone's YouTube Comment for LGR's video on the Gateway Astro All-In-One Computer on how back in the year 2000, he/she had to earn his/her Gateway Astro computer by sending in a shitload of LAYS Potato Chips codes just to get a free Intel Celeron computer.
The result was leftover stale potato chips but was worth the hassle to get a free computer. Why didn't I have something like that back then?
My guess was that the sweepstake was only in the US and I live in Canada.
Oh well, I was a toddler back in the year 2000 and my parents domineered my eating habits. Plus I was perfectly happy with my Compaq Presario and later my Vobis Highscreen back in the year 2000 since those were actual ATX and Micro-ATX towers where you could upgrade the components, plus having a lot of leftover chip bags would have annoyed my parents anyway.
Since posting this Blogpost, I've heard KELLOGG'S changed their corporate name to KELLANOVA but thank god that name will only be for the international division of the company. The name change is not for the North American branch of the company.
I live in Canada by the way but the U.S and Mexico will also still keep the KELLOGG'S name for the cereals too.
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