Freakies
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Freakies was a brand of sweetened
breakfast cereal Breakfast cereal is a category of food, including food products, made from food processing, processed cereal, cereal grains, that are eaten as part of breakfast or as a snack food, primarily in Western societies. Although warm, cooked cereals li ...
produced by Ralston and sold in the
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
. The cereal – which consisted of crunchy, light brown,
torus In geometry, a torus (: tori or toruses) is a surface of revolution generated by revolving a circle in three-dimensional space one full revolution about an axis that is coplanarity, coplanar with the circle. The main types of toruses inclu ...
-shaped amalgam – was Ralston's first major venture into the sweetened ready-to-eat cereal market, and was marketed using a cast of seven creatures known collectively as "the Freakies".


Marketing

The marketing thrust of Freakies was initially led by marketing manager Jay Brown, with marketing manager Jack Forcelledo following Brown and taking the Freakies into additional test markets and eventually national rollout. The creative for Freakies was developed by the Wells Rich Greene advertising agency in New York City. Jackie End was the lead creative and copywriter of the TV commercials as well as many of the back package panel storylines. The cereal entered the marketplace in 1972 and was discontinued in 1976. A chocolate version called "Cocoa Freakies" was available in 1973 and a fruit version titled "Fruity Freakies" was available in 1975-1976.


Characters

The Freakies were seven creatures, each with a different color and design. In addition to the personalities described on boxes and exhibited in all their television commercial spots, the 3rd spot, ''We Are the Freakies'', had each character name and describe themselves in song. Jackie End based most of the characters on people at the agency and on herself—although Goody Goody reminded End of a girl she knew in grade school—e.g., BossMoss was based on Creative Director Charlie Moss, whereas the demure Cowmumble, who had a crush on him, was based on End herself. Wells Rich Greene president and chairman
Mary Wells Lawrence Mary Georgene Wells Lawrence (née Berg; May 25, 1928 – May 11, 2024) was an American advertising executive. She was the founding president of Wells, Rich, Greene, an advertising agency known for its creative work. She was the first female CEO ...
expressed a desire to have a Freakie based on her, so Jackie End devised a glamorous, aristocratic pink character named ‘’Nifty Nifty’’, and suggested Ralston do a raspberry or strawberry cereal that the character could be the presenter for, but this did not come to pass.


TV commercials

The Freakies commercial spots were created at Zander's Animation Parlour. Animators included
Bill Littlejohn William Charles Littlejohn (January 27, 1914 – September 17, 2010) was an American animator and union organizer. Littlejohn worked on animated shorts and features in the 1930s through to the 1990s. His notable works include the ''Tom and Jerry ...
and
Preston Blair Preston Erwin Blair (October 24, 1908 – April 19, 1995) was an American character animation, character animator, best remembered for his work at Walt Disney Animation Studios, Walt Disney Productions and the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio. ...
. The animation in the first seven spots was done using colored pencil on Color-aid paper with those renderings cut out and pasted to the celluloid sheets. The final three spots were created using the less labor-intensive traditional ink and paint animation process. The initial award-winning commercial was narrated by
Burgess Meredith Oliver Burgess Meredith (November 16, 1907 – September 9, 1997) was an American actor and filmmaker whose career encompassed radio, theater, film, and television. Active for more than six decades, Meredith has been called "a virtuosic actor" ...
, and a short loop of his voice appeared at the end of the second spot. *Traditional ink-and-paint animation


Failed 1980s Relaunch

In 1986, a new Freakies cereal was made, depicting the characters as aliens from another planet. BossMoss and Grumble were effectively the same, but the other characters were simplified, renamed and redesigned: Hamhose became Hugger, Snorkeldorf became Tooter, Cowmumble became Sweetie, Goody-Goody became Hot Dog, and Gargle became Ace. The cereal itself was changed to shaped cereal pieces and marshmallows, so it was a revival of the original in name only. This product was short-lived and unsuccessful.


Appearances in pop culture

They appear in Episode 40 of the satirical soap opera, "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman" originally broadcast on Feb 27, 1976. The 1989 film ''
The 'Burbs ''The 'Burbs'' is a 1989 American black comedy film directed by Joe Dante and written by Dana Olsen. It stars Tom Hanks, Bruce Dern, Carrie Fisher, Rick Ducommun, Corey Feldman, Wendy Schaal, Henry Gibson, and Gale Gordon. The film pok ...
'' features a scene where Ray Peterson, portrayed by
Tom Hanks Thomas Jeffrey Hanks (born July 9, 1956) is an American actor and filmmaker. Known for both his comedic and dramatic roles, he is one of the most popular and recognizable film stars worldwide, and is regarded as an American cultural icon. Ha ...
, is on his couch eating from a box of Freakies. They appear in the 2007 film ''
Flakes Flake or Flakes may refer to: People * Christian "Flake" Lorenz, German musician and member of the band Rammstein * Gisa Flake (born 1985), German actress and singer * Jake Flake, American politician * Jeff Flake (born 1962), American polit ...
'', when Neal Downs, portrayed by Aaron Stanford, receives a box of Freakies for his small New Orleans eatery, which serves a wide variety of cold cereal. Freakies cereal appears in the 2017 film ''
The Case For Christ ''The Case for Christ'' is a 2017 American Christian drama film directed by Jon Gunn and written by Brian Bird, based on a true story and inspired by the 1998 book of the same name by Lee Strobel. The film stars Mike Vogel, Erika Christensen, ...
''. Additionally, in a post-credits scene, Star-Lord is seen wearing a Freakies t-shirt in the 2023 film '' Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3''.


References

{{reflist


External links


Freakies.com the Official Freakies websiteAll 10 original Freakies TV commercials1987 relaunched Freakies TV commercial
Ralston cereals Products introduced in 1972