Cheerios is a brand of breakfast cereal created on June 19, 1941 and marketed by the General Mills cereal company of Golden Valley, Minnesota, as the first oat-based, ready-to-eat cold cereal. It was called Cheeri Oats at first, later changed to Cheerios because of a trade name dispute."Researchers and General Mills Fight Growing Epidemic of Heart Disease Among Hispanic Americans." BusinessWire HealthWire. 29 March 2001. Look Smart - Find Articles. 22 July 2007. <http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2001_March_29/ai_72428222> In some other countries, including the UK, it is sold by Cereal Partners under the Nestlé brand. In 2008, Cheerios released a line of Snack Mix, in Original and Cheese flavors. All Cheerios shipped to the east coast of the United States are manufactured in the General Mills plant in Buffalo, New York.

Advertising

Cheerios was and still is a very popular breakfast cereal with kids. As such, many of the television commercials for Cheerios were geared toward children, and in many cases these commercials were animated. For example:

The Cheerios Kid

Beginning in the mid-50s and continuing through the early 70s. "The Cheerios Kid" was a mainstay in their commercials, ranking alongside most of the characters created for rival Kellogg's cereals. At first, the Kid was a clumsy, absent-minded tinkerer much to the annoyment of his girlfriend Sue, but was able to find his footing once he ate a bowl of Cheerios.

In later years, the Kid became more of a heroic figure with Sue by his side. In numerous commercials the Kid and Sue--more often just Sue--would get into some kind of trouble (at which point Sue would nonchalantly shout "Help, Kid...") and the Cheerios Kid, after eating his cereal to "power up", would quickly (and creatively) deal with the problem, whatever or whoever it was.

The Cheerios Kid was revived briefly in the late 80s with similar commercials.

"Just Cheeri-yodel"

In the late 70s Cheerios released a series of commercials that featured an animated "stick-man" chasing a yodeling cereal box with the word "Cheerios" written on the side. The box kept zooming by the stick-man singing "Cheerio-ee-oh-ee-ohs" and "Yummy Oaty-oh-ee-oh-ee-ohs". The man would try unsuccessfully to catch the elusive box before attempting the Cheeri-yodel himself, at which point the box would land by his side. Later commercials would be of stick-man figures in varying situations (on a pogo stick, beating a bass drum in a marching band, etc.) beginning to feel run down because they didn't eat a good breakfast, at which point the yodeling Cheerios box would fly by reminding them, and afterwards they'd be back at their peak.

The Peanuts Gang