Freakies was a brand of sweetened
breakfast cereal produced by
Ralston and sold in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
. The cereal – which consisted of crunchy, light brown,
torus
In geometry, a torus (plural tori, colloquially donut or doughnut) is a surface of revolution generated by revolving a circle in three-dimensional space about an axis that is coplanar with the circle.
If the axis of revolution does not tou ...
-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
Mary Wells Lawrence (born Mary Georgene Berg on May 25, 1928) is an American retired advertising executive. She was the founding president of Wells, Rich, Greene, an advertising agency known for its creative work. Lawrence was the first female ...
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 Wells Lawrence (born Mary Georgene Berg on May 25, 1928) is an American retired advertising executive. She was the founding president of Wells, Rich, Greene, an advertising agency known for its creative work. Lawrence was the first female ...
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 animator, best remembered for his work at Walt Disney Productions and the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio.
A native of Redlands, California, Blair began his a ...
.
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 theater, film, and television.
Active for more than six decades, Meredith has been called "a virtuosic actor" and "on ...
,
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. 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 starring Tom Hanks, Bruce Dern, Carrie Fisher, Rick Ducommun, Corey Feldman, Wendy Schaal, Henry Gibson, and Gale Gordon. The film was written by Dana Olsen, who ma ...
'' 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'', when Neal Downs, portrayed by
Aaron Stanford
Aaron Stanford (born December 27, 1976) is an American actor best known for his roles as Pyro in '' X2'' and '' X-Men: The Last Stand'', and Doug in the 2006 remake of '' The Hills Have Eyes''. From 2010 to 2013, he starred as Birkhoff in '' N ...
, receives a box of Freakies for his small New Orleans eatery, which serves a wide variety of cold cereal.
Additionally, Freakies cereal appear in 2017's movie "The Case For Christ"
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