Food Fright

Previously: Dead Man's Party

 Fifty years of bowl after bowl of monstrously fruity (and chocolatey) breakfasts have led us here:  the Golden Anniversary of General Mills' Monster Cereals!  Initially, a year-round phenomena, now Count Chocula, Frankenberry, Boo Berry and the gang are currently relegated to a once-a-year appearance during the Halloween season.  Since this year is the 50th anniversary of the OG morning monsters, it was decided that they'd get the band back together...the entire band.

  The big three: Count Chocula, Frankenberry, and Boo Berry are joined by their lesser known compatriots, Frute Brute and Yummy Mummy, for an all-star jam known as "Monster Mash."  The once in a lifetime breakfast treat is a mix of all the cereals together in the ultimate mash-up.

Here's the lineup of what actually ends up in your bowl.  You've got the Boo Berry and Frankenberry crunchy parts of the cereal and what appears to be Count Chocula inspired Bat & Swirl marshmallows.  You'll notice the orange and yellow marshmallows representing Frute Brute and Yummy Mummy in some nondescript shape.  There's also a pink version of that marshmallow and when you see it, you might think the shape is Frankeberry's head.  But if that's the case, what's with that shape being in the other colors?  A mystery for another time, perhaps.

As for the taste, eh...modern Monster Cereals get a lot of grief for forgoing the original oat-based recipe for the current, cheaper corn-based brew.  I normally don't notice those types of things but this time I picked up on the "Cheese Puff" type of texture.  It has an overall fruity taste and if there's meant to be any notes of chocolate (or "Chocula"), it's too subtle for me to pick up on.  

But this isn't the kind of cereal you buy for taste.  This is an event!  And it's not just confined to the cereal aisle.  Say hello to Monster Mash fruit snacks.

  The gang has their trick-or-treat buckets with them to invoke thoughts of Halloween hijinks and possibly to encourage folks to give these beauties out to youngsters on the Halloween candy hunt.  Looks like there was another attempt to prevent throwing a chocolate monkey wrench into the fruity flavors, so the official flavor is "Spooky Berry" and the Count is represented in "grape purple" instead of his usual "cocoa brown."

The whole gang is here along with "Fruit Castle" in green on the left.  The quality of the likenesses vary from character to character but they're all there in spirit, if not in flavor.  If you're not handing out full-sized Snickers on the 31st then these may be the next big thing.

Congrats to the Monster Squad on 50 years of chills, thrills, and the occasional milk spills.  I'm looking forward to the next 50!

The Crave and the Fold

If you remember the old days of Mad Magazine (and/or possibly the current run) you may remember the last page always had the "fold-in" gag.  It was a picture that took on new meaning when you folded the page to reveal a new image hidden in the drawing.

I'm not sure that's a great explanation, but come on, you know what it is.  Probably because you've also seen it in ads for some of your favorite products.  In fact, our pals Count Chocula and Frankenberry used the format to announce the return of an old friend:

Like most of the old Mad fold-ins, you can probably guess what the gag is without folding it.  But who wants to live in a world where you don't fold things?  Let's fold!  Fold hard!

Just like in Mad, the edges never seem to line up perfectly but maybe that's part of the charm.  As you probably guessed, this was an add announcing one of the many returns of Yummy Mummy!  He was the next best thing when Frute Brute wasn't available.

Several brands wanted in on the fold-in action and you can find several of them in old comic books.  As a bonus, here's one from Chips Ahoy:

You can probably see where this one is going but let's take a look at it after the foldening:

If you guessed it was going to be something cookie related, you were right!  It kind of looks like some kind of primitive Pac-Man/cookie hybrid puking out brown lines or maybe shouting.  I want to give Pac-Cookie a name but I'm afraid I'll grow too attached.

Anyhoo, I'll post more fold-ins if/when I find any more.

Dead Man's Party

Guess who's back?  Yep, it's that time of year again.  The grocery store shelves are turning a specific shade of orange and black and the rubber mask smell wafts throughout the stores a little bit more than you'd like it to.  But the most important indicator of the approach of the Halloween season happens in the cereal aisle:

I've had mixed feelings about the seasonal availability about the General Mills Monster Cereals.  Of course, in the old days they were on sale year round and when they changed to a six week seasonal offering, the initial feelings of shock and betrayal couldn't be denied.

But I think I've come around on the whole situation.  Absence makes the heart grow fonder and all that.  One of the best things about the shorter release is the new box designs we get (almost) every year.  This year in particular has quite the Halloween party on the back:

If you're into advertising mascots like me, this is definitely the party you want to be invited to.  A lot of our cereal pals are in attendance and the costume theme seems to be exclusively "monsters from Monster Cereals."  Here's how it breaks down:

• Dressed as Count Chocula: Boo Berry, the Trix Rabbit and the Cinnamon Toast Crunch "Crazy Squares" (I still haven't warmed up to those guys)
• Dressed as Boo Berry: Lucky the Leprechaun, Frankenberry and Buzz Bee from Honey Nut Cherrios
• Dressed as Frankenberry: Count Chocula, Sonny from Cocoa Puffs and the Pillsbury Doughboy?!?  Wait, he's not from a cereal!

He definitely gets the MVP award for this get-together.  You didn't see any other non-cereal mascots show up to support the monsters but this guy is a total team player.  I want to see more of this in the coming years.  Let's get some crossovers going!