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00:00It's a $50 billion global market with more than 5,000 different brands to choose from.
00:07Cereal is the funnest aisle in the grocery store and I love it.
00:10I was raised on Cap'n Crunch and Cocoa Puffs and Lucky Charms.
00:14This is what happiness is to me in a box.
00:16But just 70 years ago, the cereal aisle looked very different.
00:21The primary innovation is simply adding sugar to existing breakfast cereals.
00:27The fun and all the colors hasn't quite arrived yet.
00:32Until a new generation of cereal tycoons rewrite the rules of breakfast.
00:37There is one flavor that no one has tapped into yet.
00:42Chocolate.
00:43Imagine how earth-shattering the first chocolate cereal is if you've never had a chocolate cereal before.
00:50Suddenly it changed the way a cereal could be built.
00:54Candy.
00:54He decides what they need is interesting shapes and colors for these marshmallows.
00:59It's the Willy Wonka-fication of cereal.
01:02They're Lucky Charms.
01:04And they take extreme measures to win over the hearts and stomachs of a new generation of kids.
01:11According to our surveys, kids strongly prefer foods that are crunchy.
01:15Moment of truth.
01:19Not only did they make the product taste great, but they made it fun.
01:23Captain Crunch.
01:25These are the slogans we remember, the mascots we remember.
01:29I'm cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs.
01:31It's so deeply ingrained in my DNA.
01:34So woven into the culture.
01:37Always have to be Lucky Charms.
01:38That it created brand loyalty for a lifetime.
02:04In 1957, cold cereal is a breakfast staple in America.
02:09And it's come a long way from its turn-of-the-century beginnings.
02:14Cereal's origins were essentially part of a health fad.
02:18Because of the problems Americans are having with general digestion, cereal was introduced as a promise to address health issues.
02:27Over the next five decades, cereal grew in popularity as Americans look for a convenient and healthy option to start
02:35their days right.
02:38The idea that breakfast is the most important meal of the day really stems back to a marketing campaign by
02:44Kellogg's in the 19-teens around this idea of driving people to buy and consume more cereal.
02:51Made from wheat, corn, rice, or oats, cereal was generally bland and unsweetened.
02:57But in the 1950s, the industry leans into an ingredient aimed squarely at kids.
03:06Basically, the name of the game was sugar, sugar, sugar, and sugar.
03:10Kids needed to eat a quick and healthy breakfast.
03:13And adding sugar to it was a way to appeal to this demographic.
03:17A lot of the new products coming out had sugar literally in the title because they wanted kids to eat
03:24it.
03:24Post comes out with sugar crisp and sugar crinkles.
03:28General Mills launches sugar smiles.
03:31And Kellogg's releases sugar corn pops and sugar smacks.
03:36Those early cereals are really just about adding sugar.
03:39So you have corn flakes, they become frosted flakes.
03:42Corn puffs become sugar puffs.
03:44But even as cereal got sweeter, brands still clung to its image as a wholesome start to the day.
03:51Instead of sort of giving up the health food label, they're still going to advertise it as a healthy food.
03:56And they were able to get away with this because the American view of sugar was very different.
04:01Sugar was considered a good thing.
04:04Sugar is associated with energy and healthfulness and children need energy.
04:11The image of cereals as healthful was extremely important to appeal to parents on behalf of their kids.
04:19So really their innovation is really sort of locked down and muzzled in a lot of ways during this period
04:25of time.
04:27But in 1957, General Mills President Charles Bell is determined to make his mark with a new idea.
04:36Charles Bell is the son of the founder of General Mills, James Ford Bell.
04:40Tell the board that we have some very exciting products in development.
04:45He's an ambitious guy and he was working at General Mills for decades before he took over as company president.
04:51Well, they're not quite ready to be shared yet, but they're close.
04:54And he's trying to meet, if not beat, his dad's legacy, but he has a lot to live up to.
05:03His father, James Bell, grew General Mills from a flour mill into a breakfast empire with a variety of hit
05:11cereals earning half a billion dollars in annual sales.
05:15They've got Wheaties, they've got Kix cereal, Cheerios, and then they've got Trix.
05:21General Mills takes the formula of Kix and transforms it into a fruity version.
05:27But they're still a long way from being the biggest name in cereal.
05:32Kellogg's was the king of the cold cereal aisle.
05:35They've got things like Frosted Flakes and Rice Krispies.
05:38They are a monster of success.
05:45Charles Bell really wants to make General Mills number one, and he believes the way to do it is to
05:50find a new, bigger way to target the kids market.
05:53In order to capture young audiences, they need a hook, something that will drive young people to want that cereal.
06:00New colors for Trix, sugar-frosted corn bursts, and sugar-charged Cheerios.
06:11So Bell's looking, it's like, listen, we're going to figure out a way to appeal to kids in a way
06:15that no one's ever done before.
06:17And Bell has an unusual idea for a cereal unlike anything else.
06:22What about chocolate?
06:26Chocolate's cereal.
06:27Chocolate is one flavor that kids love, that adults love, that no one has tapped into yet.
06:34Chocolate was what we ate for dessert, right?
06:36It wasn't something we would think of having for breakfast.
06:39Yet Bell's idea will one day give rise to a $5 billion chocolate cereal market.
06:46It will open the floodgates for the next wave in kids' cereal.
06:51And put General Mills on the path to being the number one cereal company in the world.
06:58But first, they'll have to figure out how to actually make a chocolate cereal.
07:06It's fairly easy to just add a sugar coating on the outside of cereals that have already been produced.
07:12But it's an entirely different animal to basically change the formula of the cereal that you're producing.
07:19Cocoa powder can absorb moisture like a sponge, so it can really destroy the texture of a puffed grain.
07:25It's not as easy as it is adding it to, like, a cake or brownies.
07:33And cracking the recipe isn't the only challenge.
07:39The machinery they had was really very specifically designed for the whole grain-based cereals that they had been producing.
07:48But cocoa tends to have some fat in it, which does not always play nicely with machinery.
07:54The cocoa powder ended up gumming up the machinery and being really difficult to clean.
08:00They weren't meant to handle an oily, dusty product like cocoa powder.
08:04After months of trial and error, the team thinks they have something good enough to present to Bell.
08:13They realized the corn could handle the cocoa powder a little bit better, and they could add cocoa powder to
08:19the dough before it was puffed.
08:21And they got a nice, stable product.
08:26Those are the chocolate kicks.
08:28For the world's first-ever chocolate cereal, Bell greenlights a chocolate version of their hit cereal, Kicks.
08:38Imagine how earth-shattering the first chocolate cereal is if you've never had a chocolate cereal before.
08:44Like, suddenly you're getting your candy and your cereal in one product.
08:48It was the first cereal that really turned your milk into chocolate milk.
08:52This is mind-blowing.
08:54But the obvious name isn't cutting it for Bell.
08:58Cocoa Kicks.
08:59Typically, if you had a cereal that was now the sugar version, they would just add sugar or frosted to
09:04the front
09:05to let you know it's the same cereal you know and love, just with a little bit of extra sweetener
09:09on it.
09:09So it would have been perfectly reasonable for them to call this cereal Cocoa Kicks.
09:13That makes it sound like a spin-off.
09:16These are bigger than that.
09:19They need their own name.
09:21They were going out on a limb and creating a whole new product.
09:24Frankly, a whole new category.
09:26On August 14th, 1958, General Mills unveils a groundbreaking innovation in kids' cereals.
09:36It's the first ever chocolate-flavored cereal.
09:40And it goes by the name that will make everyone cuckoo for years.
09:46Cocoa Puffs.
09:47They blast out the newspaper ads.
09:49They start spending heavily on TV ads.
09:52Cocoa Puffs. Cocoa Puffs. Cocoa Puffs.
09:55Chocolate-flavored cereal.
09:56It's everywhere.
09:57They want people to know, like, hey, for the first time, you can have a chocolate cereal.
10:01I know you like the sweet stuff.
10:03You're going to love this.
10:04If you add chocolate to any cereal, of course, a kid is defenseless.
10:08They're just going to say, yes, I would like some of that.
10:11And that's what happened.
10:12They were starting to blur the lines between dessert and breakfast
10:16and when you eat sweets and when you eat chocolate.
10:191958 is a watershed year in cereal production.
10:25The adoption of chocolate-flavored cereals marks the shift between thinking about breakfast cereals
10:31as more of a health food and thinking about breakfast cereals as more of a fun, kid-oriented food.
10:39Cocoa Puffs adds $20 million to General Mills' bottom line, narrowing the gap with Kellogg's.
10:49But Bell isn't alone in the race to be number one.
10:53Donald Lowry is a former collegiate football and track star.
10:58And he is a Quaker Oats company man, a root to the fruit, moil to the soil.
11:03He's worked his way up from the bottom at Quaker Oats to become CEO.
11:06And he really wants to make something of this company.
11:08He is really a born competitor.
11:11And he now finds himself facing a cereal aisle that is more competitive
11:15than what Quaker has faced in the decades before.
11:20Quaker Oats began as a consortium of mills in the 19th century.
11:25And they single-handedly turned oats into a breakfast staple for America for decades to come.
11:32At the start of the 20th century, Quaker Oats was the largest breakfast company in America,
11:37with $16 million in sales, the modern equivalent of $600 million.
11:43And everybody knows oatmeal. It's been around forever.
11:47This is a hearty breakfast.
11:48But since the 1950s, as sugar cereals swept the nation,
11:53Quaker sales have taken a $40 million hit, an 18% decline.
11:58They were first in the breakfast game, right? Oatmeal.
12:01But now, Quaker Oats had to watch pre-sweetened cereals come in
12:05and steal a big part of their market share.
12:07So Donald Lowry decides,
12:09I'm going to make a cereal for kids and return Quaker Oats to its one-time glory.
12:15He is determined to take Quaker into the cereal aisle
12:19and not just be competitive, but he wants to win.
12:29It's 1960, and Quaker CEO Donald Lowry is on a mission to reclaim the company's place
12:36at the head of America's breakfast table.
12:40Before the day and age of the readily available breakfast cereal in a box,
12:46oatmeal was incredibly popular.
12:48It wasn't very expensive, had myriad health benefits.
12:52Quaker has built its reputation on being the father of all oats.
12:57But while it's an American staple,
13:00they're certainly not on the cutting edge of anything at this time.
13:03Quaker oatmeal wasn't convenient, it wasn't speedy.
13:06Not only that, it was just sort of old-fashioned.
13:09Quaker Oats is in need of a revamp.
13:11They have some cold breakfast cereals, such as puffed rice and wheat,
13:15but they're a lineup of old-fashioned, healthful breakfast cereals.
13:20The Quaker food science team has been working on pre-sweetened versions of cereal staples.
13:27We got puffs, crisps.
13:30Lowry doesn't just want to copycat what General Mills is doing.
13:34We got flakes.
13:35He doesn't want something that's loaded with sugar or crazy, like cocoa puffs.
13:41He felt that rather than just developing another gimmick that would appeal to children,
13:51they would try to appeal to parents.
13:59What's this one?
14:00We don't actually have a name for that one yet.
14:05It's got a unique shape,
14:07and it's unlike anything the cereal aisle has ever seen before.
14:21It's made with oats,
14:23but he finds a way to weave the fibers of the grains
14:26so that they'll be a little bit crunchy.
14:29While it's lightly sweetened,
14:30it has far less sugar than a typical kid's cereal.
14:34It felt like a treat,
14:35but it didn't have that tooth-aching sweetness.
14:39That's the one.
14:48What you have before you
14:52is a cereal as wholesome as Quaker oats,
14:55made from the same healthy oats that made us who we are.
14:59Cereal had always marketed itself
15:02as being healthy with vitamins and with nutrients,
15:08and the sugar was energy.
15:09While General Mills and Kellogg's will use sugar and chocolate to lure children,
15:15we will appeal directly to their parents.
15:18And while Lowry believes kids will love the taste,
15:21he plans to market it based on a benefit oats naturally provide.
15:26Our healthy new cereal is full of protein.
15:31He wants to let parents know it's got the protein that they need.
15:35It's got the essential building blocks for life.
15:40Life cereal.
15:41One day, life will rake in $180 million in yearly sales,
15:47becoming Quaker's number one cold cereal,
15:51and one of the top ten selling cereals of all time.
15:56But on its release in 1961, sales fall flat.
16:03There's no fun mascot.
16:05There's no fun slogan.
16:06They're not saying it tastes great.
16:08I love it.
16:10I flip for life.
16:11No.
16:12The most useful protein ever in a ready-to-eat cereal.
16:16The most useful protein ever in a ready-to-eat cereal.
16:21They hit the protein angle very hard.
16:23They compare it to things like milk and meat.
16:26Lowry's gone all in on the health values
16:29and the healthy reputation of Quaker Oats,
16:31and kids don't want their parents to buy it.
16:36It doesn't have the same pizzazz
16:38that all the other winners in the cereal market have.
16:42Advertising and marketing are as important
16:45or more important in the cereal industry
16:49in determining the success of a product.
16:52And television advertising is exploding,
16:56including advertising directed at children.
16:58By 1961, about 90% of American households
17:02own a television,
17:04a dramatic increase from less than 10% in 1950.
17:09They would make Saturday morning cartoons
17:11and then just populate it with commercials for cereals,
17:14for sugary products,
17:16all the things that appealed to a child.
17:18Kids start to have a much bigger say
17:20in what is happening in their households.
17:23You know, post-World War II,
17:25you've got the nuclear family unit living in the suburbs.
17:30We're much more child-focused
17:33than we used to be as a country.
17:36Kids actually have a surprising amount of purchasing power,
17:39and they get that because they're persistent.
17:43It's called the nag factor.
17:44A kid can be just annoying enough in the cereal aisle
17:48to get mom and dad to buy the cereal that he wants
17:51and not the cereal that his parents want.
17:53Life's lackluster sales tell Lowry one thing.
17:57His strategy isn't working.
18:00He finally realizes something.
18:02He's been marketing his cereal
18:04and its health benefits to the parents.
18:08But it's the kids who have all the purchasing power.
18:12Back at General Mills,
18:14the win from Cocoa Puffs has faded.
18:17Just months after Cocoa Puffs comes out
18:20to great acclaim,
18:21Kellogg's answers with Cocoa Krispies.
18:25Kellogg's never gives them a break for a second.
18:27Kellogg's is relentlessly on top of the competition
18:30every minute of the day.
18:35But Charles Bell has a plan
18:37to get kids' attention back
18:39by using one of Kellogg's signature tactics.
18:45Kellogg's has these little elves
18:47named Snap, Crackle, and Pop
18:50who represent Rice Krispies.
18:52They invent Tony the Tiger,
18:54talking about frosted flakes right there.
18:58The slogan was drilled into you
19:01from every time you're watching
19:03Saturday morning cartoons.
19:04These are not just pushing the cereals,
19:06they're pushing kind of a cartoon connection with them.
19:08So Tony the Tiger is almost as cartoon-like
19:12and lovable as Bugs Bunny.
19:13And so Bell's looking at this and he's saying,
19:16okay, we need our version of Tony the Tiger
19:18for Snap, Crackle, and Pop.
19:20It has to be something fun,
19:23something energetic,
19:24and something that captures the sheer craziness
19:26of having chocolate in your breakfast.
19:30I'm cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs.
19:38Four years after its initial release,
19:41Cocoa Puffs relaunches with a new campaign
19:44featuring the mascot,
19:46Sonny the Cuckoo Bird.
19:48With the introduction of Sonny the Cuckoo Bird,
19:50they've now firmly established
19:51their power player in the cereal aisle.
19:54He would be, and it remains to this day,
19:56the Spokes Bird, I guess?
19:58I can't resist them.
20:01Hey, cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs!
20:04I'm cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs.
20:05The kids were going nuts for it,
20:08the mascot was going nuts for it,
20:10and the parents,
20:11they were just kind of going nuts.
20:12Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs!
20:14Within six months,
20:15General Mills' sales surge
20:17by roughly $5 million.
20:20It's astonishing when you consider
20:22that General Mills is able to accomplish this
20:24simply by the introduction of Sonny the mascot.
20:27And not surprisingly,
20:28around the same time,
20:29they also give their cereal,
20:31Trix, its own mascot,
20:32who becomes as iconic as Sonny.
20:35With one of the greatest marketing hooks
20:37of all time.
20:38A wild bunny who always gets chastised?
20:41Silly rabbit!
20:42Trix are for kids.
20:44Trix are for kids.
20:44But the following year,
20:46Kellogg's claps back
20:48with a new fruity cereal
20:49to compete not just with Trix,
20:52but with Cocoa Puffs' new mascot.
20:54The competition now starts getting heated.
20:57They introduce...
21:00Toucan Sam!
21:01Another bird mascot on their cereal,
21:04Fruit Loops.
21:05So that's really a shot across the bow
21:09of General Mills.
21:10And this really signals
21:12this power play arms race
21:15that is going to go on
21:16for the foreseeable future.
21:19Meanwhile, Quaker CEO Donald Lowry
21:23is changing course
21:24after sales of life pale in comparison
21:27to cereals like Cocoa Puffs,
21:29Cocoa Krispies, and Fruit Loops.
21:31These other guys, they were on it.
21:34They knew the kid was their target.
21:36Lowry came to that idea really slowly.
21:38But he did start to come to it.
21:44Rather than try to rebrand life,
21:47Lowry decides to start from scratch.
21:50Lowry knows if he fails at this,
21:53he's probably done.
21:54So he goes to an ad agency
21:56that knows how to deal with kids,
21:58and he partners up with them
21:59to develop a brand new cereal.
22:02According to our surveys,
22:03kids strongly prefer foods that are crunchy.
22:05They're dumping all this money
22:07into the marketing of this cereal
22:09before they even have a cereal.
22:10That's unprecedented.
22:12It's crazy,
22:12and it's not the way things
22:13have ever been done at Quaker Roads.
22:15They took the liberty
22:16of drafting a mock-up.
22:19Mock-up of what?
22:20Your next cereal.
22:24They begin to conceptualize the identity
22:27of this cereal.
22:29And they come up with a sailor.
22:32Not only just a sailor, but an officer.
22:35With a name that puts crunchiness front and center.
22:39Captain Crunch.
22:42Captain Horatio Crunch.
22:45He loves it.
22:46It's got gravitas.
22:47And so he decides to take 80%
22:49of Quaker's entire ad budget,
22:52and he's putting it all in on Captain Crunch.
22:56It's an enormous risk,
22:57but he knows that a big swing is necessary
22:59to force his way into the kids' market.
23:02Here's the problem.
23:04They now know what the mission is,
23:06and they now know what the mascot is.
23:08They now know what the name of the cereal is,
23:12but they don't have cereal.
23:15But the Quaker Oats team knows their mission.
23:18To create a kid's cereal
23:19that stays crunchy in milk.
23:25For breakfast cereal companies,
23:27coming up with a cold cereal
23:29that was going to stay crispy in milk
23:32was kind of the holy grail.
23:36Everybody who's ever eaten a cereal
23:37knows that there's a ticking clock
23:39from the moment you pour that milk on.
23:42Kicks and Cocoa Puffs,
23:43because of their puffed shape,
23:45actually stayed crunchy the longest,
23:47but even they eventually would get saturated
23:50and become soggy and mushy and unappealing.
24:02In the cereal industry,
24:04you call it bowl life.
24:05The moment you add milk,
24:07how long before the material is so soggy
24:10that nobody wants to eat it anymore.
24:27It's not crunchy.
24:29There's only so much we can do.
24:33I can't release this.
24:40Research team leader Rob Reinhart
24:42has no choice but to go back
24:43to the drawing board.
24:50After weeks of experimentation,
24:52his latest concoction is more firm,
24:54but it still gets soggy in milk.
24:57The cereal is a combination of corn and oats
25:01kind of made into a slurry or paste,
25:04extruded through a dye,
25:06and then puff-dried.
25:07But it still gets soggy in milk.
25:10It has to stay crunchy the longest,
25:13and he's not having much success.
25:18Meanwhile, in the flavor department,
25:20there is an incredibly talented culinarian
25:23by the name of Pamela Lowe.
25:26And they told her that they needed a flavor.
25:30I mean, it's crunchy.
25:31What is the flavor of crunch?
25:33So Pamela Lowe goes to a favorite flavor
25:37from her own childhood,
25:39butterscotch that her grandmother used to use.
25:42Butterscotch isn't a super common flavor,
25:44but it is a desirable flavor.
25:46And she takes this butterscotch
25:48with a little bit of vanilla
25:49and formulates it into an oil.
25:52She thought perhaps if we spray these cereal bits
25:56with this butterscotch flavoring that I used to love,
25:58that might be a hit.
26:08They think they've found their flavor,
26:10but without the crunch,
26:10they've got nothing.
26:15And he suddenly has an idea.
26:21And he realizes, wait a second.
26:25Oh, that could be interesting.
26:27Maybe this is the answer
26:29for the magical crunchiness.
26:37At Quaker Oats,
26:39while Robert Reinhardt struggles
26:40to make a cereal that stays crunchy enough
26:43for Captain Crunch,
26:45flavorist Pamela Lowe
26:46has invented a unique flavor for it.
26:49The flavor of Captain Crunch
26:51is actually butterscotch,
26:52even though that's never mentioned
26:54in the advertising.
26:54It's a flavor that people don't always recognize,
26:58but when they try it,
26:59they're like, that's really good.
27:01And it was amazing
27:03because you've just got a new flavor profile
27:05that you're bringing to your breakfast cereal.
27:11But the flavor oil does more
27:13than provide a delicious new taste.
27:15It could also be the solution
27:18to their biggest problem.
27:20Oil and water don't mix.
27:22Submerge the milk.
27:25Cereal close to the surface.
27:32A moment of truth.
27:45By putting this butterscotch coating on in oil,
27:48the cereal now didn't want to absorb milk,
27:51and it made the cereal crisper
27:53for a much longer period of time.
27:55The oil on the surface
27:57actually makes it flow.
27:58It basically waterproofs
28:00all the different pieces of cereal.
28:03Lowry finally has a cereal
28:05that lives up to the Captain Crunch name.
28:08It's the crunchiest cereal in milk
28:10for the longest period of time.
28:12They've figured out the Holy Grail.
28:17In 1963,
28:19the first Captain Crunch ads
28:21hit the airwaves.
28:22Captain Crunch, delightfully sweet.
28:26The actor who was voicing over the cartoon
28:28just kind of said Captain Crunch
28:30instead of Captain Crunch.
28:31Everybody at Quaker Oats at this time
28:33was like,
28:34Captain seems a little more kid-friendly
28:36than Captain.
28:37The writers were like,
28:38all right, let's make it fun,
28:40and they'll remember these stories,
28:42and I still do.
28:43They took you on a little mini-adventure.
28:45Captain Crunch has a whole bunch of shipmates
28:48and a whole bunch of backstory
28:50that Tony the Tiger doesn't have.
28:52Captain Crunch presents Breakfast on the Guppy.
28:56Morning already, Seadog?
28:58I was so invested in the adventures
29:01of Captain Crunch, of Seadog.
29:04It hits.
29:06Overnight, it seems like Captain Crunch
29:08is everywhere.
29:09He's in commercials,
29:10he's in print advertisement,
29:11he's in breakfast tables,
29:12he's in cereal aisles,
29:14he's everywhere.
29:15It's so woven into the culture
29:18that it created brand loyalty
29:19for a lifetime.
29:21Captain Crunch popularity soars,
29:23ranking number one
29:24in the New York City
29:25and Chicago regions.
29:28You just wanted more and more Captain Crunch.
29:30So tasty, rich, buttery, crunchy,
29:34just so good in cold milk.
29:36The milk takes on that sort of
29:38vanilla-y, butterscotch-y sweetness,
29:40so it's some of the sweetest cereal milk
29:43that you've ever had in your life.
29:45Now, there's no definitive answer
29:48as to what that shape is.
29:50I used to think barrels when I was a kid
29:53because you always used to see barrels
29:55on ships in cartoons.
29:57I always thought it was treasure chests,
29:58which I think makes sense
29:59in the context of him
30:00being an ocean-going explorer,
30:02but we're probably just infusing
30:04too much of our desire
30:06for logic and reason into it.
30:08It's probably just a random shape
30:09that a machine came up with.
30:10As Captain Crunch puts a dent
30:13in General Mills' sales,
30:16Charles Bell is determined
30:17to create a new kid's cereal
30:20that stands out.
30:22All we can do now
30:23is continue looking forward
30:25and come up with the next big thing.
30:27What's bigger than chocolate?
30:31That's the challenge.
30:40In 1963, Charles Bell is once again searching
30:44for a new kid's cereal
30:46that will make General Mills stand out
30:49among the competition.
30:50General Mills has failed to release
30:53a new hit cereal
30:55in the five years since Cocoa Puffs.
30:58They've launched Twinkles
31:00and Country Corn Flakes
31:02and Wheat Hearts,
31:03but they all kind of fall flat.
31:07The sad reality is
31:09most product launches
31:10cost a whole bunch of money
31:12and a whole bunch of money's lost.
31:14And the more you invest,
31:15the harder it hits you
31:17when it fails.
31:17So Bell takes a more conservative approach
31:21at this point
31:21and decides, you know,
31:23we're going to cut costs.
31:24And he sort of puts down this edict
31:26that any new cereals
31:28have to be built
31:29using existing processes.
31:31It's really handicapping them.
31:33I mean, unless you can take
31:34the Cheerios or Wheaties base
31:36and do something revolutionary with it,
31:38you're screwed.
31:40But one product developer
31:42is desperate
31:43to find a way to deliver.
31:45So John Hollihan
31:47is puzzling over
31:48ways to come up
31:50with new products.
31:51And while he's messing around,
31:53he happens to be snacking
31:55on Circus Peanuts.
31:58Circus Peanuts,
31:59invented in the 1800s,
32:01they were a pretty popular
32:01penny candy in their day.
32:03They look like a peanut,
32:05they're orange in color,
32:06but they're actually
32:07a sweet marshmallow.
32:09Circus Peanuts
32:10are the worst thing
32:11you can get
32:12when trick-or-treating
32:12except for a razor blade.
32:14They're America's worst candy
32:15ever.
32:17But John Hollihan,
32:19unlike many,
32:20was a fan
32:21of Circus Peanuts.
32:25And in this moment,
32:27the moment that
32:27the cereal gods
32:28must have shined down
32:29upon and smiled,
32:31he has one of the greatest ideas
32:32in the history
32:33of cereal ever.
32:36What if I put them
32:37in my Cheerios?
32:38And so he takes
32:39his Circus Peanuts,
32:41he cuts it up
32:42into little pieces,
32:43and he sprinkles it
32:44on his cereal.
33:01And it tastes delicious.
33:03He creates the first cereal
33:05with pretty much
33:06straight-up pieces
33:07of candy
33:08sprinkled in it.
33:10And he thinks
33:11it's a pretty good way
33:12to appeal to the kids,
33:13you know, like,
33:14have candy
33:14with your breakfast.
33:19Hollihan quickly develops
33:21a sample
33:21to share with Belle.
33:24So Hollihan's
33:25got his invention.
33:26He knows
33:27he's on to something.
33:34What's the one thing
33:36kids like
33:36as much as chocolate?
33:41Candy.
33:43Hollihan presents
33:44his prototype.
33:46Cheerios
33:46with these little
33:47marshmallow bits
33:48that he calls
33:50Marbits.
33:53This whole
33:54sugar cereal thing
33:55has just
33:55gone to a new level.
34:03It's gone bad.
34:14It's stale.
34:16The issue is
34:18when you put
34:18the marshmallows in,
34:19it was great,
34:20but if you left
34:21the marshmallows
34:22in the presence
34:22of the cereal,
34:23there's moisture migration.
34:25This makes
34:26the entire bag
34:27instantly stale.
34:31As far as Belle
34:32is concerned,
34:32after all those
34:33months of research
34:34and development,
34:35they've got nothing.
34:42But rather than
34:43give up,
34:44Hollihan tinkers
34:45with the process
34:46until he lands
34:47on a solution.
34:50he realizes
34:52that the trick
34:52is dehydrating
34:54the marshmallows.
35:08And the result
35:09is a marshmallow
35:10that's a little
35:11more firm
35:11and more dense
35:12than a traditional
35:13marshmallow.
35:18The resulting
35:19marshmallow
35:19is perfect
35:20to package
35:20with dry cereal
35:21because now
35:22it'll all sit
35:23and it'll hold
35:23on a shelf.
35:24Nothing gets soggy.
35:25Then once you hit
35:26them with the milk,
35:27they start to rehydrate
35:28just a little bit.
35:29They get soft again.
35:30It works well.
35:31The dried out marshmallows
35:33not only rehydrate well,
35:34they're also easier
35:35to color and shape.
35:37Little bits
35:38of cut out marshmallow
35:39are great for taste,
35:40but they're not really
35:41good for visuals.
35:43Now it's just a matter
35:44of picking the right
35:45shapes and colors
35:46and figuring out a name.
35:49To Hollihan,
35:50the small, bright pieces
35:51are reminiscent
35:52of a current trend
35:54that has nothing
35:55to do with cereal.
35:57In the early 1960s,
35:59charm bracelets
35:59are the rage
36:01in Hollywood
36:02from people
36:03like Elizabeth Taylor
36:04and Grace Kelly
36:05and Joan Crawford
36:07and Natalie Wood.
36:08Women were wearing
36:09charm bracelets
36:10and they were records
36:11of their life.
36:12They got a charm
36:12when a kid was born.
36:13They got a charm
36:14when they graduated school.
36:16It's different.
36:17It's individualized.
36:18Everyone's got
36:18their own thing.
36:20One of the most
36:20popular charms, though,
36:22is a little
36:22four-way leaf clover
36:23because everyone loves
36:24having some good luck.
36:25Are these the new Marbits?
36:28They're not Marbits anymore.
36:30And you can sort of see
36:31where this is going, right?
36:33Hollihan's creation
36:34will one day sell more
36:35than a million boxes
36:37a week
36:37and bring in
36:39over $283 million
36:41a year.
36:43They're Lucky Charms.
36:50In 1964,
36:52on St. Patrick's Day,
36:54General Mills releases
36:55their new marshmallow cereal,
36:57Lucky Charms.
36:58They're magically delicious
36:59old cereal.
37:00The mascot
37:01is a leprechaun
37:02called Lucky.
37:04Unlike the typical
37:05leprechaun hiding gold
37:06under the end of a rainbow,
37:07he's got this
37:08marshmallow-laden cereal.
37:10Always after me,
37:11Lucky Charms.
37:12Pink hearts,
37:13yellow moons,
37:14orange stars,
37:15green clovers,
37:16and blue diamonds.
37:19Lucky Charms,
37:21they're magically delicious.
37:22How do I know that?
37:23It's because of
37:24marketing to kids.
37:25Even now,
37:26as an adult,
37:27I still respond
37:27to a Lucky Charms commercial
37:29because I was
37:30indoctrinated in my youth.
37:32Kids went bonkers for it.
37:34Like, they just could not
37:35get enough Lucky Charms.
37:37This is the 1960s.
37:38Kids had never seen
37:39marshmallow bits
37:40in cereals before.
37:41This is literally
37:42straight-up candy
37:43in your cereal bowl.
37:45It had to blow minds.
37:46Even at the time
37:47when people were
37:48very used to
37:49sugar-loaded cereals
37:51and chocolate cereals,
37:52this one took the cake.
37:54It's kind of
37:54the Willy Wonka-fication
37:56of cereal at that point.
37:58That this is
37:59an experience
38:00where the sky's
38:01the limit
38:02in terms of
38:02what can be offered
38:03in your breakfast
38:04cereal bowl.
38:05As Lucky Charms
38:07sparks an industry frenzy
38:08for the next new thing,
38:11at Quaker,
38:13Donald Lowery decides
38:14to revisit
38:15an older product.
38:17There's still
38:18one product
38:19that he really believed in
38:21but couldn't quite
38:22make a success
38:22that he believes
38:23still has some life
38:24left in it.
38:25Life cereal.
38:27Now that Lowery
38:29has given Quaker Oats
38:30a significant degree
38:31of success
38:32in the breakfast arena,
38:33he realizes
38:35that his mistake
38:37was not in the making
38:38of it,
38:39not in making it healthy,
38:40not in how he flavored it,
38:42not in even naming it life.
38:44It was the marketing of it.
38:46And so he works
38:47with an ad agency
38:48to come up with a way
38:50to kind of backdoor
38:53appeal life
38:54into kids' imaginations.
38:56And they create
38:57an ad campaign
38:58that is so sticky
39:00and compelling
39:01that it just
39:02takes over everyone.
39:04In 1972,
39:06a decade after
39:07its initial release,
39:08Life cereal
39:09is reborn
39:10in a groundbreaking commercial.
39:13I'm not going to try it,
39:14you try it.
39:15The commercial consists
39:16of two older boys
39:17and their younger brother
39:19trying a bowl of life.
39:21The kids are skeptical
39:22about it
39:23and one of the older kids
39:24suggests to the other one,
39:26hey, let Mikey try it.
39:28And it's like,
39:28this is the healthy cereal.
39:29Mikey won't eat it.
39:30He hates everything.
39:33He likes it.
39:34Hey, Mikey.
39:35Mikey likes it
39:36and suddenly
39:37kids saw themselves
39:39in Mikey,
39:40saw themselves
39:41as the older sibling
39:43pushing the food
39:44on the younger brother.
39:45The remarkable thing was
39:47what Mikey was,
39:49who Mikey was,
39:50wasn't a crazy
39:51flying duck type of thing.
39:52He was a real kid.
39:54It told mothers,
39:54guess what?
39:55Your kid's going to like it.
39:56He's going to eat it.
39:58And it told kids,
39:59hey, even Mikey likes it.
40:01Rather than appeal
40:01to just kids or parents,
40:03the ad appeals to both.
40:06Thanks to Donald Lowry,
40:08today Quaker's top-selling
40:09cold cereal is life.
40:11with $180 million
40:13in annual sales
40:15and ranking in
40:16as the ninth most popular cereal
40:19across the entire industry,
40:21ahead of Captain Crunch,
40:23which brings in sales
40:25of $120 million per year.
40:28Donald Lowry
40:29not only pivots the company,
40:32but he takes this iconic
40:3419th century brand
40:36of Quaker Oats
40:37and restores it
40:38to its former glory.
40:39Around the same time
40:41Quaker relaunched life,
40:44General Mills
40:45puts out the first cereal
40:46to blend chocolate
40:47and marshmallows.
40:50Count the chocula.
40:53Along with an entire line
40:54of monster-themed,
40:56flavored marshmallow cereals.
40:58Freakenberry,
40:59count the chocula.
41:00General Mills
41:01hits an immediate home run
41:03with the monster cereals.
41:04These were the cereals
41:06that I would insist
41:08my parents buy,
41:09and I love them
41:10to this day.
41:11The monster cereals
41:12for a 70s kid
41:13hit hard
41:14because we were
41:16the last generation
41:17that got to enjoy
41:18old-school Frankenstein,
41:21Dracula,
41:22Wolfman.
41:25Charles Bell
41:26was finally able
41:27to truly step out
41:28of his father's shadow
41:29and created
41:30a bold new legacy
41:32in the breakfast cereal market.
41:33Over the next two decades,
41:36General Mills
41:36will introduce
41:37Cinnamon Toast Crunch
41:38and Honey Nut Cheerios,
41:40which together bring in
41:42over $750 million a year,
41:45catapulting General Mills
41:47past Kellogg's.
41:48General Mills
41:49finally claws its way
41:51to the top.
41:52To this day,
41:53General Mills
41:53remains the leader
41:54in the cold cereal market.
41:56Through decades of competition,
41:57General Mills and Quaker
41:59pushed kids' cereal
42:01far beyond
42:02sweetened flakes and puffs,
42:04creating a $50 billion industry
42:07built on fantasy and fun.
42:10I think cereal
42:11is one of those
42:12magical dishes
42:13in any American kid's life.
42:15When we eat it as adults,
42:17it harkens back
42:18to times of youth.
42:20You can mention
42:21some of these
42:21iconic cereal brands
42:23to any given American,
42:24and they will have
42:26an immediate memory.
42:28Luxembourg
42:28Native American
42:28of the
42:30have
42:30they will have
42:30and they will
42:31think about
42:31Come on.
42:31There is an
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