Sugar Puffs are 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...

-flavoured 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...

 made from sugar-coated wheat

Wheat

Wheat is a cereal grain, originally from the Levant region of the Near East, but now cultivated worldwide. In 2007 world production of wheat was 607 million tons, making it the third most-produced cereal after maize and rice...

 sold in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

. For many years it was made by the Quaker Oats Company

Quaker Oats Company

The Quaker Oats Company is an American food conglomerate based in Chicago. It has been owned by Pepsico since 2001.-History:Quaker Oats was founded in 1901 by the merger of four oat mills:...

 but in 2006 it was sold to Big Bear t/a Honey Monster Foods, based in Leicester

Leicester

Leicester is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England, and the county town of Leicestershire. The city lies on the River Soar and at the edge of the National Forest...

. The products under the Honey Monster title continue to be manufactured at the site in Southall

Southall

Southall is a large suburban district of west London, England, and part of the London Borough of Ealing. It is situated west of Charing Cross. Neighbouring places include Yeading, Hayes, Hanwell, Heston, Hounslow, Greenford and Northolt...

, Middlesex

Middlesex

Middlesex is one of the historic counties of England and the second smallest by area. The low-lying county contained the wealthy and politically independent City of London on its southern boundary and was dominated by it from a very early time...

.

Sugar Puffs were first launched in 1957 with Jeremy the Bear. They were invented by William Halliday Davies (1919–2009), production manager at the Quaker Oats mill in Southall, London. The Honey Monster campaign in the 1970s was very successful. Honey Monster went on to lead many campaigns including appearances with Boyzone

Boyzone

Boyzone are an Irish boy band comprising Keith Duffy, Mikey Graham, Ronan Keating,Shane Lynch, and formerly Stephen Gately. Boyzone have 19 singles in the top 40 UK charts and 21 singles in the Ire charts. The group currently have 6 UK number one singles and 9 number one singles in Ireland with 12...

 and ex-Liverpool FC & Newcastle United footballer Kevin Keegan

Kevin Keegan

Joseph Kevin Keegan, OBE is a former international footballer and former manager of the England national football team and several English clubs, most notably Newcastle United....

, with actor Roman Stefanski playing the Honey Monster, before changing to Gary Martin, in which played many roles, such as Zordrak in The Dreamstone

The Dreamstone

The Dreamstone is a British animated television series that ran for 4 series of 13 episodes each between 1990 and 1995. The original concept and artwork were created by Michael Jupp. The series was animated by the FilmFair animation studio as a Central production for ITV...

.

Product

Sugar Puffs are made from wheat, which is puffed using heat. The wheat puffs are then glazed with glucose-fructose syrup and sugar. Despite the emphasis on honey in advertising and branding, the product is only 3% honey.

Varieties

There have been a number of variations on the basic product, including:

• Banana Puffs
• Choco Puffs
• Honey Waffles
• Spooky Puffs
• Honeycomb Puffs
• Strawberry Puffs

Advertising

Sugar Puffs posters can clearly be seen in the 1966 film Daleks - Invasion Earth 2150 AD

Daleks - Invasion Earth 2150 AD

Daleks – Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. is the second of two films based on the British science-fiction television series Doctor Who. It was the sequel to Dr. Who and the Daleks , and starred Peter Cushing in his return to the role of the eccentric inventor and time traveller "Dr. Who". It also...

. They helped to finance the film, and in return held a giveaway contest in which the grand prize was a Dalek

Dalek

The Daleks are a fictional extraterrestrial race of mutants from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Within the series, Daleks are cyborgs from the planet Skaro, created by the scientist Davros during the final years of a thousand-year war against the Thals...

 prop made for the film.

The Honey Monster was first seen on TV in 1976 in an advertisement created by John Webster of the advertising agency BMP

Boase Massimi Pollitt

Boase Massimi Pollitt is an advertising agency founded in October 1968 by Martin Boase, Gabe Massimi, and Stanley Pollitt.The three founders had previously worked at Pritchard Wood, but went their own way after failing to buy the company from its parent...

. The ad focused around a nutritional message which was illustrated by a "mother" (played by Henry McGee

Henry McGee

Henry McGee was a British actor, best known as straight man to Benny Hill for many years. McGee was also often the announcer on Hill's TV programme, delivering the upbeat intro "Yes! It's The Benny Hill Show!"...

) and "child" (the Honey Monster) relationship. The mother was responsible for what the child was eating. The child wanted 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 would cry "Tell them about the honey, mummy!".

In the late 1980s, "Sugar Puffs" advertisements featured the slogan "You-ll Go Monster-Mad For The Honey". These advertisements portrayed children trying to get access to a packet of Sugar Puffs with someone or something then preventing them from getting the Sugar Puffs. The children would then cry "I Want My Honey!!" and they would then turn into the Sugar Puffs Honey Monster and thus get the Sugar Puffs.

There were a number of settings for these advertisements. The advertisements themselves were:
(A) "Breakfast time": Where a boy tries to reach a packet of Sugar Puffs on a fairly high cupboard.
(B) "School History Class":Where are class of children turned into the Honey Monster after seeing a Sugar Puffs delivery lorry pull up outside their classroom.
(C) "Boyscouts": Where three boyscouts turned into the Honey Monster after their tent zipper failed to undo properly.
(D) "Fairground": Where a girl tried to win a packet of Sugar Puffs at a hoop-throwing stall.
(E) "School Tour".
(F) "Desert Island".

After these advertisements, the Sugar Puffs Honey Monster was then seen in advertisements in which he was depicted playing soccer and also as a James Bond-style hero.

Punk poet, John Cooper-Clarke, the also featured in a series of off the wall adverts in the 90s - the campaign was very successful according to Clarke, himself.

In March 2008, a new campaign was launched with a television advertisement. The spot featured Honey Monster and his housemate sitting at their breakfast table, singing a nonsense song about Sugar Puffs, in the scat

Scat singing

In vocal jazz, scat singing is vocal improvisation with wordless vocables, nonsense syllables or without words at all. Scat singing gives singers the ability to sing improvised melodies and rhythms, to create the equivalent of an instrumental solo using their voice.- Structure and syllable choice...

 style. Finishing with the strapline

Advertising slogan

Advertising slogans are short, often memorable phrases used in advertising campaigns. They are claimed to be the most effective means of drawing attention to one or more aspects of a product. A strapline is a British term used as a secondary sentence attached to a brand name...

 ‘Feed the fun’, the advertisement represented the idea that Honey Monster brings out the child in everyone. The advert was criticised by Julian Barratt

Julian Barratt

Julian Barratt is an English comedian, musician, music producer and actor. Barratt is best known for playing the character of Howard Moon in the cult comedy The Mighty Boosh, which he also co-writes with comedy partner, Noel Fielding.-The Mighty Boosh:Barratt stars as the character Howard Moon...

 and Noel Fielding

Noel Fielding

Noel Fielding is a British artist, comedian and actor. He is known for his roles as Vince Noir in The Mighty Boosh, which he co-writes with comedy partner Julian Barratt, and as team captain on the music panel show Never Mind the Buzzcocks.-Stand-up comedy:Noel Fielding performed regularly as a...

 of the comedy duo The Mighty Boosh

The Mighty Boosh

The Mighty Boosh is a British comedy troupe featuring comedians Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding. Developed from three stage shows and a six episode radio series, it has since spawned a total of twenty television episodes for BBC Three and two live tours of the UK, as well as two live shows in the...

, who considered it to be a plagiarisation of the "crimping

Crimp (song)

A crimp is one of the humorous a cappella nonsense songs sung by Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt in the comedy television series The Mighty Boosh. A crimp is sung in a scat style featuring lyrics characterized by non-sequiturs that are rhythmically similar to beatboxing...

" songs in their television series.

In August 2008 the Honey Monster featured in a charity video and single by the group Samanda

Samanda

Amanda Louise Marchant and Samantha Joanne Marchant , better known as Samanda are a female duo, consisting of twin sisters who first came to fame on Big Brother UK in 2007, in which they jointly achieved second place.They released their cover of Aqua's hit song, "Barbie Girl" on 8 October 2007 and...

, called "Honey Love".

Another new advert was done for the Honey Waffles variant, returning the Honey Monster to his true self along with his undying love for honey. The ad ends with the tagline (as said by the Honey Monster) "Don't tell 'em about the honey, mummy", a reference to the Sugar Puffs endline from the 1970s.

In popular culture

Sugar Puffs is mentioned in almost every performance of the hit West End musical, Billy Elliot

Billy Elliot the Musical

Billy Elliot the Musical is a musical based on the 2000 film Billy Elliot. The music is by Sir Elton John, and book and lyrics are by Lee Hall, who wrote the film's screenplay. The plot revolves around motherless Billy, who trades boxing gloves for ballet shoes...

. When Billy is trying to find an excuse to leave the house, he keeps on coming up with things to go to the shop for; one of them is Sugar Puffs.

The Honey Monster was used as part of a recurring gag in the film Four Lions

Four Lions

Four Lions is a 2010 British satirical comedy film. It is the debut feature from director Chris Morris, written by Morris, Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong. The film is a jihad satire following a group of homegrown Islamist terrorist jihadis from Sheffield, England.-Plot:A group of young Muslim men...

when one of the main characters uses an outfit of the character as a disguise in the final act.

In the British TV show Red Dwarf

Red Dwarf

Red Dwarf is a British comedy franchise which primarily comprises eight series of a television science fiction sitcom that aired on BBC Two between 1988 and 1999 and Dave from 2009–present. It gained cult following. It was created by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, who also wrote the first six series...

the character "Lister" is said to eat Sugar Puff sandwiches.

Similar products

• Honey Smacks
  Honey Smacks
  Honey Smacks is a sweetened puffed wheat breakfast cereal made by Kellogg's.-Naming:Introduced in 1953, the cereal has undergone several name changes. It started out as Sugar Smacks. In the 1980s, it was renamed Honey Smacks...
  
   (aka Smacks, Sugar Smacks, Honni Korn Smacks)
• Post
  Post Cereals
  Post Foods, LLC, also known as Post Cereals is a food company that was founded by C.W. Post in 1895 with the first Postum, a "cereal beverage," developed by Post in Battle Creek, Michigan. The first cereal, Grape-Nuts, was developed in 1897. Post has its headquarters in the Bank of America Plaza...
  
  's Golden Crisp
  Golden Crisp
  Golden Crisp is a breakfast cereal made by Post Cereals and introduced in 1949 as Sugar Crisp. It consists of sweetened puffed wheat.In a 2008 comparison of the nutritional value of 27 cereals, U.S...
  
  
• Honey Wheats, Honey Wheat