Win a Phone from Cap'n Crunch – August 1984

It's funny how our cell phones have become our most vital possession. 

Besides making it possible for us to be connected with family and friends 24/7, we use them for everything: banking, shopping, entertainment, etc. We wouldn't leave the house without our phone any more than we would without our wallets.

Who could have possible imagined forty or so years ago that phones would be so important to us?

Well, Cap'n Crunch for one. 

At least that's the impression I got when I saw how the good skipper of the S. S. Guppy was offering kids the chance to win an AT&T phone back in August 1984 in the Crunch Island Monster Phone Sweepstakes. The ad above ran in the Journal on August 1st of that year.

I wasn't sure what to think, seeing as the horned monster in the ad has a napkin tied around his neck. Is Cap'n Crunch on the menu (and I don't mean the cereal)?

Nah. As the commercial below shows, the Cap'n and a real live action kid who apparently needs to make a phone call were looking for a phone booth on Crunch Island. They find one, but a monster is using the phone – and then eats it when he's done yakking. 

It doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Unfortunately, by the mid-1980s, Quaker Oats had changed animation studios for Cap'n Crunch cereal, moving the account from the Jay Ward Studios (where it had been since 1963) to a new one. Cap'n Crunch was still being voiced by Daws Butler (who also did Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, Quick Draw McGraw, etc.) but the design of the Cap'n, as well as the tone of the commercials, would change drastically in the years ahead.

Anyway, Cap'n Crunch was one of my favorite cereals when I was a kid. Fortunately for my siblings and me, Mom would buy whatever cereals we requested, usually about 3 or 4 boxes a week. Consequently we ate a lot of Cap'n Crunch. We could finish off half a box in one sitting!

One of these days I will have to feature my collection of Cap'n Crunch memorabilia on the blog, including vintage boxes, premiums, ads, animation cels, figurines, etc. He's one of my favorite cereal ad mascots, along with Sugar Bear and the Rice Krispies elfin trio.

The first box design

But I don't eat a lot of sweet cereals these days. It's mostly the Breakfast of Geezers®: Shredded Wheat, Cheerios, Grape-Nuts, etc.