Offbeat Cereal Mascots: 8 Forgotten Stars

Cereal mascots play an indelible role in American pop culture, and just about everyone can name a few off the top of their head. But for all the ones that stuck around there were plenty more than are no longer with us, and from Ogg to the Cheerios Kid, we've tracked down 8 of them.

Offbeat Cereal Mascots: 8 Forgotten Stars (Slideshow)

Back in the baby boom era, no breakfast was complete without an appearance by some zany cartoon cereal mascot. Cereal companies brought dozens of characters to life, from talking tigers and circus clowns to bucktoothed cavemen — and kids ate them up. Some cartoon creatures lasted for only a few years, while others sold their products for decades. Human characters like King Vitaman often retired earlier than critter counterparts, such as Sonny the Cuckoo Bird.

Over the years, breakfast cereal became more health-oriented, and many of these characters went the way of the dodo as cereal companies shifted to healthier offerings that didn't need to rely on a talking animal to sell. Today you rarely if ever see new cereals with mascots, but the ones that have stuck around — Tony the Tiger, Snap, Crackle, and Pop, Toucan Sam, etc. — have entered the cultural lexicon as much as any cartoon character.

Grab a spoon and a bowl — we're pouring on this history in this slide show of forgotten cereal mascots from the 1950s, '60s, and '70s.

Reproduced with permission from Reminisce. Check out the November 2013 issue of Reminisce Extra for a feature on famous cereal mascots by Tim Hollis, the author of many books on pop culture, including 'Part of a Complete Breakfast,' 'Dixie Before Disney,' and 'Selling the Sunshine State.' His books are available on amazon.com.