Honey Nut Cheerios
Encyclopedia
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Cheerios
Cheerios is a brand of breakfast cereal by General Mills introduced on May 1, 1941 as the first oat-based, ready-to-eat cold cereal. Originally named CheeriOats, the name was changed to Cheerios in 1945 because of a trade name dispute with Quaker Oats. The name fit the "O" shape of the cereal pieces...
breakfast cereal
Breakfast cereal
A breakfast cereal is a food made from processed grains that is often, but not always, eaten with the first meal of the day. It is often eaten cold, usually mixed with milk , water, or yogurt, and sometimes fruit but sometimes eaten dry. Some cereals, such as oatmeal, may be served hot as porridge...
, introduced in 1979 by the General Mills
General Mills
General Mills, Inc. is an American Fortune 500 corporation, primarily concerned with food products, which is headquartered in Golden Valley, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis. The company markets many well-known brands, such as Betty Crocker, Yoplait, Colombo, Totinos, Jeno's, Pillsbury, Green...
cereal company. This is the second variation from Original Cheerios, it is sweeter than the original, with a honey
Honey
Honey is a sweet food made by bees using nectar from flowers. The variety produced by honey bees is the one most commonly referred to and is the type of honey collected by beekeepers and consumed by humans...
and almond
Almond
The almond , is a species of tree native to the Middle East and South Asia. Almond is also the name of the edible and widely cultivated seed of this tree...
flavor. While this product used to be made with actual nuts, as of 2006, the nuts were discontinued, and natural flavor used instead.
Mascot and promotions
Their mascot is an anthropomorphic beeBee
Bees are flying insects closely related to wasps and ants, and are known for their role in pollination and for producing honey and beeswax. Bees are a monophyletic lineage within the superfamily Apoidea, presently classified by the unranked taxon name Anthophila...
, designed for the first commercials by Dean Yeagle
Dean Yeagle
Dean Yeagle is an accomplished animator, known for his character 'Mandy', who has frequented the pages of Playboy Magazine.As a young Disney fan, Yeagle set his sights on becoming an animator for Disney around the age of 10...
at Zander's Animation Parlour in NYC. The bee buzzed around without a name until 2000, when Kristine Tong, a fifth-grade student from Coolidge
Coolidge, Texas
Coolidge is a town in Limestone County, Texas, United States. The population was 863 in 2009.-Geography:Coolidge is located at ....
, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, won a national contest to name the bee, dubbing him "BuzzBee". The name was later shortened to just Buzz. Buzz was originally voiced by Arnold Stang
Arnold Stang
Arnold Stang was an American comic actor who played a small and bespectacled, yet brash and knowing big-city type.-Career:...
until around 1992. He is currently voiced by Billy West (of Futurama
Futurama
Futurama is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening and David X. Cohen for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series follows the adventures of a late 20th-century New York City pizza delivery boy, Philip J...
fame). Buzz also appeared as the host in the Honey Nut Cheerios Spelling Bee game, which was named after the breakfast cereal
Breakfast cereal
A breakfast cereal is a food made from processed grains that is often, but not always, eaten with the first meal of the day. It is often eaten cold, usually mixed with milk , water, or yogurt, and sometimes fruit but sometimes eaten dry. Some cereals, such as oatmeal, may be served hot as porridge...
.
Historically, Honey Nut Cheerios has participated in much the same promotional advertising as the original brand, while collaborating with the field of NASCAR
NASCAR
The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing is a family-owned and -operated business venture that sanctions and governs multiple auto racing sports events. It was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1947–48. As of 2009, the CEO for the company is Brian France, grandson of the late Bill France Sr...
and especially driver Bill Lester
Bill Lester
William Alexander Lester III is a racing driver who competes in the Grand Touring category in the Rolex Sports Car Series for Autohaus Motorsports. In 1984, he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in EECS from the University of California, Berkeley...
, in promoting healthy diets. In 1985, Baskin-Robbins
Baskin-Robbins
Baskin-Robbins is a global chain of ice cream parlors founded by Burt Baskin and Irvine Robbins in 1953, from the merging of their respective ice cream parlors, in Glendale, California. It claims to be the world's largest ice cream franchise, with more than 5,800 locations, 2,800 of which are...
introduced a flavor based on the cereal called Honey Nut Crunch. Promotional tie ins included gift certificates in cereal boxes and special Honey Nut Crunch sundaes in stores.
Advertising
Commercials for the product have been a mainstay of Saturday morning cartoonSaturday morning cartoon
A Saturday morning cartoon is the colloquial term for the animated television programming that has typically been scheduled on Saturday mornings on the major American television networks from the 1960s to the present; the genre's peak in popularity mostly ended in the 1990s while the popularity of...
programming for many years. They generally depict the mascot tempting a hapless child or adult with a sparkling bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios, and their attempts to compete for it.
The styles of commercials have changed over the years. In the early '80s, commercials mostly featured adults talking about the cereal and how good and healthy it is. During a majority of the '80s and '90s, commercials would mostly be about Buzz trying to tempt someone with a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios. They'd normally refuse, but Buzz would not give up; he'd eventually tell them that the cereal contains real golden honey and crunchy nuts, and the consumer would respond, "Did you say honey and nuts?", and have the cereal. Commercials in the late '90s voiced by Andrew "Andy" Morris, would be about Buzz coming into a classic fairy tale and do the same thing he's always done in the past. Commercials in the 2000s are mostly animated adventures about Buzz and his friends outsmarting villains trying to steal all the honey in the hive. Most recently, some commercials have been featured in CGI.
One Honey Nut Cheerios commercial that has gone on to become one of the longest-running commercials in history features Buzz paying a visit to the infamous Ebenezer Scrooge
Ebenezer Scrooge
Ebenezer Scrooge is the principal character in Charles Dickens's 1843 novel, A Christmas Carol. At the beginning of the novel, Scrooge is a cold-hearted, tight-fisted and greedy man, who despises Christmas and all things which give people happiness...
. This commercial (which first premiered in the late-Fall of 1989) was eventually revised to reflect the newer Buzz voice by Andy Morris in the mid Nineties, when the cereal's tagline was changed to "Nobody can say No to Honey Nut Cheerios". This commercial generally re-airs during each winter holiday season. The new voice for Buzz since 2004 is Charlie Schlatter
Charlie Schlatter
Charles Thomas "Charlie" Schlatter is an American actor. He has starred in numerous TV series and films, and is well-known for his role in the series Diagnosis: Murder as Dr. Jesse Travis with Dick Van Dyke, and for his role in the film 18 Again! with George Burns...
. The new Buzz phrase is "Bee Happy, Bee Healthy." Since 2009, Heath Brandon has been the announcer voice over (AVO) for Honey Nut Cheerios.
Taglines
Many of this cereal's taglines overlapped with each other. They were used on different advertisements.- It's a honey of an O. (1979–1990)
- It's Honey Nut Cheerios! (1979–1992; 2000–2004)
- It's Irrezzzzistable! (1992–1993)
- Race for the taste! (1993–1995)
- Little O, Big Taste! (1995–1999)
- Nobody can say "No" to Honey Nut Cheerios. (1995–2004)
- Bee happy, bee healthy! (2001 - Current)
- From the hive that's nuts about honey! (c.2004–present)
Health appeal
Honey Nut Cheerios maintains much of the same health appeal of the original Cheerios, due to its soluble fiber. Package nutritional information explains that "three grams of soluble fiber daily from whole grain oat foods, like Honey Nut Cheerios, in a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol, may reduce the risk of heart disease. Honey Nut Cheerios has 0.75g per serving." This has been linked to the ability to lower cholesterolCholesterol
Cholesterol is a complex isoprenoid. Specifically, it is a waxy steroid of fat that is produced in the liver or intestines. It is used to produce hormones and cell membranes and is transported in the blood plasma of all mammals. It is an essential structural component of mammalian cell membranes...
. As with Cheerios, the American Heart Association
American Heart Association
The American Heart Association is a non-profit organization in the United States that fosters appropriate cardiac care in an effort to reduce disability and deaths caused by cardiovascular disease and stroke. It is headquartered in Dallas, Texas...
certified the cereal as "heart-healthy" for meeting the food criteria for saturated fat and cholesterol content.
Miscellaneous
Honey Nut Cheerios was apparently the preferred breakfast cereal of fictional character Omar LittleOmar Little
Omar Devone Little is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, portrayed by Michael K. Williams. Omar is a renowned stick-up man who lives by a strict moral code and never deviates from his rules, foremost of which is that he never robs or menaces people who are not involved in "the game"....
from television series The Wire
The WIRE
the WIRE is the student-run College radio station at the University of Oklahoma, broadcasting in a freeform format. The WIRE serves the University of Oklahoma and surrounding communities, and is staffed by student DJs. The WIRE broadcasts at 1710 kHz AM in Norman, Oklahoma...
. Several episodes of the series indicated that he had difficulty finding them, however, including at local stores in Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
, in prison and whilst in Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
.