Post Cereals Ad – March 4, 1964

Post Cereals has shown up as a topic on many of my blog, er, posts over the years.

Why? Mainly for sentimental reasons. My siblings and I used to watch the Linus the Lionhearted show, which featured the Post advertising cereal mascots in their own cartoon segments: Linus (for Crispy Critters); Sugar Bear (for Sugar Crisp); So-Hi (for Rice Krinkles); Lovable Truly (for Alpha Bits); and Rory Raccoon (for Post Toasties). Although we were mainly a Kellogg's family, Mom did buy a few Post cereals from time to time, mainly Crispy Critters and Alpha Bits.

Here's the introduction to the Linus show.

Need proof that I enjoyed the show? Here's a drawing I made of some of the characters back in 1965. (By George, my mother saved almost all my doodles from the time I picked up a crayon.)

Just like my drawing, Linus was overshadowed by his friends on his own TV show

But back in March 1964, the Linus show wasn't on the air yet. It wouldn't debut until September of that year. Perhaps in anticipation of the unveiling of the show, Post Cereals was aggressively marketing its cereals, doing battle with Kellogg's and General Mills.

And here's a good example of its marketing strategy: a coupon good for 12 cents off any two Post cereals. The almost 3/4 page ad ran in the Journal on March 4, 1964.

The ad is kind of neat as it is a roll call of all of the Post cereals at that time and how the packages looked.

Of particular interest is the Sugar Crisp box (below). It had a bear on it, but the beady-eyed bruin wasn't quite the well-known Sugar Bear that we all know.

The box would keep this look for a while even after Sugar Bear debuted on the Linus show. Eventually, the box was redesigned (below) to highlight the most popular character on the show.

Sugar Crisp (now called Golden Crisp, with Sugar Bear still on the box) is one of the few surviving Post cereals from the 1964 ad. Crispy Critters, Post Toasties, and Alpha Bits have all been discontinued. 

Rice Krinkles is gone as well, but was reformulated into the Pebbles cereals – Fruity and Cocoa.

Even though these days I eat a lot of Post Shredded Wheat, as well as Cream of Wheat (since I got sick last month), I still keep a box of Golden Crisp on hand. I guess I'm just a kid at heart.

I buy a box of Post Grape Nuts about once a year. But just like Corn Nuts (which I love), Grape Nuts can be hazardous to your dental health.