ICC #3 (October 2011)

Ask and you shall receive!   While I was somewhat unsurprised by the idea that cereal companies no longer put prizes (or good ones at least) inside their boxes, I walked into my local Kroger to find Golden Grahams (along with a few other cereals under their banner) offering up Spongebob Squarepants toys in their boxes.   These are all of Spongebob himself only, but are the same size as the gashopon released some years back that was pretty popular. 

                As an added bonus, there is actually a cutout of a pineapple underwater set up with Patrick and Squidward.   This is exactly the type of thing I was looking forward to in the cereal world.

                On the other side of the coin for this month, I recently tried the new Fruity Boulders cereal, put out by Fruity Pebbles (Post) and claiming to taste like caramel covered apples.    I can define how it tasted with two letters: “Ew”.   This is not the worst cereal I have ever tasted; it is the worst food that I have tasted ever.   I have no idea how this got past the marketing people because after eating it I immediately felt like I was going to throw up.   This cereal is so bad it even makes the milk taste vomit-inducing.

                When I emailed my concerns to Post, their response was less than sympathetic.    I gave their cereal a shot and it was awful.   I only spent $2.28 on the box, so I’m not too bent out of shape over it or anything, but it would have been nice for them to offer me a coupon or something for “one of my other Post favorites” so as not to lose me as a customer completely. 

                In any event, here is what their email response looked like.   I sent a very professional, dissatisfied email to them through a web form on their official website.

From: postconsumeraffairs@casupport.com
To: <withheld for security purposes>
CC:
Subject: Regarding Case #:19136852
Date: Fri, 9 Sep 2011 13:34:45 -0400
September 08, 2011

Dear Joshua Macala,

We regret you were disappointed with Post Pebbles Boulders Apple and thank you for bringing this to our attention.

We value your comments and assure you that we will be sharing them with our Quality Assurance Department. We are sorry for any concern this situation has caused you.

Thank you for contacting Post.

Kenneth Ettlemyer
Consumer Response Representative

~~TLXEA_19136852~~N

            I encourage everyone to contact Kenneth with any and all of your problems, concerns, questions or just to chat.   I’ll be back in November with more cereal goodness.   Until then, stay away from the Fruity Boulders and email Kenneth!   That’s going to be my tagline now:

            ~Do Not Eat the Fruity Boulders~

Cereality Blog # 2: Quisp / Cap'n Crunch / The Prize Inside

When I was a kid, we ate cereal based upon how cool the toy inside was and not based on nutritional value.   In recent years, this has changed, but I’m glad to (sort of) see the idea of the prize inside come back.

First off, I stumbled upon some Quisp at Target and first thought it said that the prize was inside.  Little did I know that it was a mail-in offer.   With three UPCs and shipping and handling charges you could own one of the following: a Quisp watch, a Quisp bobblehead or a Quisp rubix cube.  When I realized that this was a mail-in offer I was more excited because I figured that if it was a matter of getting the prize inside the box, I’d probably end up with the rubix cube, my least desired item.   Needless to say, I also ate a lot of Circus Fun as a kid and have no desire for any kind of watch probably ever again. 

Two weeks and one day to the moment when my check cleared the bank, I received this happy fellow in my mailbox.   He’s a lot bigger than I thought he was going to be, probably because I thought he’d be sized to fit inside the cereal box.    Nonetheless, I know that I made the right choice in my prize as the other two would’ve been nice but probably less stylish in my apartment.

The thing I like better about doing the mail-in than having the prize in the box is that you get to pick and choose which item you want.   Rather than buying box after box of the same cereal, you only have to buy a set amount (In this case three).   I wonder what the odds are of my getting one out of three items in a box of cereal if I bought three.   Logic would dictate that maybe you’d get one of each, but that seems the least likely scenario.    So I will say that, yes, this is a good deal and I’m glad I did it.   Plus I got some yummy cereal on top of it all.

Up next, Cap’n Crunch has started an offer to get a retro looking t-shirt.   It requires four UPCs and shipping and handling charges, but here’s the kicker:  You have to have the special UPC codes (which are circles and cannot be scanned) in order to participate.   My first thought when I saw the mail-in was, “I have more than four Cap’n Crunch UPCs at home, I could do this if I just buy one box and get the mail-in form”.   So by hopes were quickly dashed on that idea.   Still, with the promotion being on the original Cap’n Crunch, with Crunch Berries, Oops All Berries and Peanut Butter Crunch, you could literally buy a box of each and be set.   I, however, bought two boxes of Oops All Berries and passed on the original.  

The reason why this mail-in is such a good deal is because you have to buy the cereal of the prize you’re getting.   Imagine that you love Godzilla and had to eat a cereal you hated to get some sort of special Godzilla t-shirt.   At the same time, as much as I like Frosted Flakes, for instance, I definitely don’t love them enough to eat four boxes to gain a free t-shirt.   But for Cap’n Crunch, yes, yes I will.   It’s one of those things where if you’re going to get the shirt and wear it, you’re going to eat the cereal as well because, well, why would you wear the shirt if you didn’t eat the cereal and vice versa?   This deal is a win all around; especially since there are very few cereals out there right now that I’d send away for a free t-shirt by eating it.   (But, keep in mind that there are still a few--- You hear me, Trix??)

On a final note, has anyone seen this in stores yet?  I’ve seen the advert on all the boxes but haven’t actually seen the product yet.   Everything seems to be going chocolate.   Oh well, this one just looks gross.

I See ceREALITY First Blog

When I was young cereal was different than what it is now.  It seemed like rather than what you were actually eating, people cared more about what the prize was that you got in the box for eating said cereal.   What’s funny about that is you would eat some really bad cereal to get a good toy as opposed to eating a really good cereal to get an average prize.   If this mentality still existed today, people would be caught saying, “Nutritional value?  Who cares!  We’ve got Pokemon in the boxes.   Kids are going to murder their parents if they don’t buy this!” 

For your reading pleasure, here are my Favorite Five cereals I remember eating as a kid.

5) Boo Berry – One of the few cereals that sticks to its guns and comes out every Halloween still (and can sometimes be found in the off season), between Franken Berry and Count Chocula, Boo Berry was always my favorite (with Frank a close second because there are already so many chocolate flavored cereals to eat). 

4)  C3PO’s – While I don’t entirely remember the taste of this cereal, I remember that on the back of the box you used to get a mask you could cut out to become your favorite Star Wars character.   While C3PO himself and Yoda were fun to wear, Luke Skywalker’s mask was just downright creepy.

3)  Captain Crunch – As a child I remember spending a lot of time (At least one day a week, if not more) at my grandparents house.   My mother is one of eight children and she had many brothers who loved Captain Crunch.   With that being said, they would eat the cereal even if they had outgrown the prizes that came inside.  One of my earliest and fondest memories of cereal was my grandparents having that drawer in their kitchen full of toys and prizes from various boxes of cereal that their own kids were too old to appreciate but us grandkids were allowed to play with instead.   From the submarines that actually sink and bubble in water to the Captain Crunch and Soggy water squirters, I guess you could say that the Captain has always been a part of my family.

2)  Mr. T – I still recall the taste of this cereal as if I ate it yesterday (And I wish they still made it or something close to it)  What I remember most about this cereal though was getting sheets of stickers inside the boxes.   I don’t remember the animated series as a kid, but would later see it on Boomerang, yet I still remember being very fond of these stickers. 

1)      G.I. Joe – Much like with Mr. T, I remember the taste of this fondly and still miss it very much.  If they would ever release a cereal that tasted like this again I could be happy.   But what I remembered most about this cereal- and why I liked it the best- was that it had various gadgets on the back of the box that you could cut out, fold up and tape together for your 3 ¾ inch G.I. Joe figures to play with.   Sure, it would have been easier if they just put the piece of plastic inside the box, why not, but this required you to actually do something you felt good about.   It wasn’t like someone was just handing you a toy; it was like you were making the toy yourself and that was its own reward.  Oh, if only cereal could be like this nowadays.