Posted by Andrew on April 1, 2011 at 7:00 am.
Posted this one a couple of hours early so you have some time to prepare this morning! As stolen (verbatim) from SickHop:
Cereal with surprising or disgusting milk
What you’ll need:
Food coloring ~~ Cereal ~~Milk
Take out the cereal bowls and before pouring in everyone’s favorite cereal add a few drops of food color. You can choose their favorite colors or go with whatever color will gross them out such as green. Then simply pre-pour the kids cereal and leave the milk on the table for them to add themselves.
When they add the milk, it will mix with the food coloring and turn the milk that color. This is obviously more effective with cereals such as cheerios than with multi-colored fruit loops.
Lotsa larfs!
Photo from the Martin Short masterpiece Clifford.
Posted by Andrew on March 30, 2011 at 9:00 am.
Just a few interesting, cereal-related links, like so many marshmallows in a sea of non-lucky-charm Lucky Charms cereal pieces…
Posted by Andrew on March 28, 2011 at 2:11 pm.
Amidst all the stupid, unfounded rumors that Quaker was discontinuing Cap’n Crunch (what was actually reported was that Quaker was going to reduce the cereal’s advertising presence, and even that was mostly speculation) comes the discovery by several alert cereal fanatics that the ridiculously-named, but well-loved, Oops! All Berries variety is back on store shelves.
Phins of I Just Ate This discovered a box at his local Publix grocery store, and others have found it at Target. Word has it it will be back on shelves nationwide by mid July.
Have you recently found Cap’n Crunch’s Oops! All Berries in the wild?
Photo credit: theimpulsivebuy on Flickr.
Posted by Andrew on March 16, 2011 at 9:00 am.
Just a few interesting, cereal-related links, like so many marshmallows in a sea of non-lucky-charm Lucky Charms cereal pieces…
Posted by Andrew on March 15, 2011 at 9:00 am.
This week, actor Paul Reubens, who created and portrays Pee-wee Herman, was a guest on “Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!,” NPR’s weekly news quiz show. While talking with host Peter Sagal about some Pee-wee projects that never materialized, Reubens mentions a breakfast cereal, Pee-wee Chow, that was this close to being produced by Purina:
SAGAL: During the time of “Pee-Wee’s Playhouse” back in the 90s and the movies, we understand that, like, you had plans to create a Pee-Wee empire, like make a Pee-Wee cereal?
Mr. REUBENS: Yes, there was going to be Pee-Wee Land. There was going to be – I actually talked Purina, the Purina Company into doing my cereal. And it was going to be the first time that they ever allowed the checkerboard to be put on something other than pet food.
SAGAL: Oh really?
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. REUBENS: So my cereal was going to be called Pee-Wee Chow.
Be sure to “read more” to see the entire excerpt about his proposed cereal (and the commercial that would have made it a classic!), and for a link to the entire interview on NPR’s website.
Read more. »
Posted by Andrew on March 14, 2011 at 9:00 am.
Everyone’s favorite Lucky Charms mascot (well, except…) is making the switch from traditional, hand-drawn, 2-dimensional animation to a computer-rendered 3-D model. Featured above is the first CG commercial, animated by Calabash Films and produced by Saatchi & Saatchi, New York.
But while “updating” cereal mascots has proven disastrous recently, Wayne Brejcha, Calabash Creative Director, says the animators tried to keep the spirit of the old Lucky in mind while working on the project:
“Traditional animators tend to think about the characters differently than CG animators. When you’re drawing something you bring a sense of design to it simply because every line in it comes from hand to the paper. With CG a digital model exists inside the computer with form and structure, and there’s a tendency to let the computer model do its thing, but doing that gives up some of the artistry you get from cel animation. We wanted our CG team to think about the nuances you get with cel and bring that to life in 3D. We took all of the expertise our staff has developed drawing these characters for the last 20 years and brought it into the CG world.”
Source: Shoot Online.
Posted by Andrew on March 11, 2011 at 9:00 am.
An unintentionally-funny, if unsurprising, article from U.S. News & World Report says a new study has proven what we’ve assumed all along: fun mascots make cereal taste better!
Well, not really. What the study says is that kids, tasting two identical cereals with different packaging, thought that the cereal with the cartoon character on the box tasted better. Also interesting:
"Surprisingly, the kids were also influenced by the product name: When there were no cartoons on either box, they rated Healthy Bits as better-tasting than Sugar Bits. That suggests healthy-eating messages may finally be resonating."
Amongst it all is a great quote:
"Take these cartoon characters and put them on high-fiber, low-sugar cereals, and target them to children," registered dietitian Keri Gans told HealthDay. "This should be an opportunity for food manufacturers who are concerned about the obesity epidemic in our youth to get them to choose healthier cereals."
Why is it taking people this long to finally come up with this? Stop trying to destroy our favorite cereals and just make the healthier alternatives more fun!
Read the full article at U.S. News & World Report.
Photo via Robert Bradley (rjbradley2) on Flickr.
Posted by Andrew on March 10, 2011 at 9:00 am.
Designer Philip Tseng created this cool shirt with his “photovector” process, a method he describes as a “mixed media of photo and vector.”
You can buy Phil’s shirt, titled “Taste of the Wild,” for twenty bucks at Threadless.
Posted by Andrew on March 9, 2011 at 9:00 am.
Just a few interesting, cereal-related links, like so many marshmallows in a sea of non-lucky-charm Lucky Charms cereal pieces…
- How special K? — A revealing look behind Kellogg’s “Special K” brand. [Star Tribune]
- Cereal Celebrities: Where Are They Now? — Another godawful list. I should start compiling a list of these lists… [Smosh]
- 54 Cereals We Loved and Lost – A Tribute — Another list! No obnoxious, post-modern commentary, though, so as a gallery of cereal boxes from decades past, it’s actually not that bad. [Urlesque]
- The Last Breakfast Illustration: Offensive or Creative? — Verdict: offensive, only because this has been done at least a hundred million times before. [Bit Rebels]
- Badly drawn cereal box characters — Okay, last list of week, for real. This one’s not too bad either, actually. They remind me of those public domain VHS covers I love so much. And why doesn’t my (off-)brand of Berry Bunch O’Krunch have an ugly tiger on the box?! [Boing Boing]
- Cereal box health warning after recycled cardboard study — Cereal boxes could give you CANCER! If you live in England. Also, the video they’re using to illustrate the piece says the exact opposite ("There is no evidence to suggest that there is any risk to the public at the moment."), so whatever. [The Telegraph]
Posted by Andrew on March 8, 2011 at 9:00 am.
Designer Stephen Longo recently contacted the Priced Nostalgia blog and shared some insight (and production art) from his days designing the box for Croonchy Stars, the Swedish Chef-endorsed Post breakfast cereal.
There are countless shows like “How It’s Made” and “Unwrapped” featuring scenes of factories producing cereals, but how many times have you seen the process behind designing the packaging? If you’ve ever wondered about just such a subject, check out this post on Priced Nostalgia for a behind-the-scenes look at the whole project, as well as some posts on Mr. Longo’s other contributions here and here.
