General Mills Retro Cereal Boxes

Following the Big Head Boxes, General Mills is deploying a new tactic in ongoing battle for cereal dominance. (pardon the metaphor). Retro cereal box designs are appearing on store shelves in Target, and elsewhere.

My initial reaction was one of refreshing surprise — what a pleasant treat for someone like me, who appreciates the aesthetics of yesteryear. But almost immediately after, I found myself puzzled at intent. Since most of these breakfast cereals are aimed at children, I wonder if their effectiveness will be lost on today's youth. Are the kid's of today's ADD generation secretly fans of mid-century retro design? Perhaps the obvious conclusion is that these retro designs are aimed at adults who would otherwise not buy anything promoted by a cartoon rabbit.

Trix: Retro and Current designs. What a difference 40 years can make.

Along with these four pictured cereals, (Lucky Charms, Honey Nut Cheerios, Cocoa Puffs, and Trix), we're seeing Kix, Wheaties, and Golden Grahams dusting off vintage packaging.

Additional Photos after the jump.

There is also a regular Cheerios box floating around out there somewhere.

While I enjoy the notion of retro packaging, I have to shake my head at the thoroughly modern (and eternally annoying) promotion bugs on the face of the box. Couldn't we offer the T-Shirt using a side panel? Or at least design within the overall style of art direction? That part stands out as an anachronism if ever there was one.

General Mills aren't the only ones getting into the retro packaging craze. Remember Pepsi and Mountain Dew retro packaging?

Thanks to Allan Peters and YumSugar for the images, and commentary.

Comments

[Gustavo Estrella]

nice! very nice!

[dugclee]

Man...i was in the local Target the other day and ended up buying two of these because I couldn't help myself. I didn't see the Kix box but if it's there when i go back it's mine.

I swear the Cocoa Puffs tasted better than last time I had them.

Do you think that Honey Nut Cheerios box is true to back then? That gradient blend background seems a bit suspect.

[Ella]

AMAZING. Love it.

[jim]

The Lucky Charms, Honey Nut Cheerios, and Golden Grahams -- those boxes are so iconic to me that I was surprised to realize that this is *not* what they look like today.

[Richard Roche]

The photo of the kix box is mine, it's from the previous time they did this promotion, unfortunately I didn't see the Kix box this time around

[AmberLee]

Yea. this is so great. the vintage boxes look so much friendlier, makes me want to have a bowl.

[rmc]

Honey Nut Cheerios and Golden Grahams seem to be 80s vintage. I prefer the simplicity of the mid-century boxes like the Kix. They seem to be more in line with the principles of good design -- simplicity, balance, white space.

Does anyone else feel like the vintage t-shirt offer is a way to remind consumers that the box is intentionally retro? Seems like it could have been executed more successfully.

[Joe Golike]

Great post. The old boxes really stand out from all the gradient and drop shadow laden stuff today. I think you guys missed the point about them not connecting with today's ADD kids. It's parents who do the shopping, not the kids.

[Stephen Coles (Stewf)]

Too bad about the big crappy contemporary starburst on the Kix box.

[KA]

Wow!, The modern Trix Rabbit looks like he's on meth!

[Jean-Philippe Daigle]

It's less mainstream, but I really like this dorset cereals box:

http://flickr.com/photos/jpdaigle/2394324048/

The way they used another leaf (blending into the design) for the "50% fruits, nuts, ..." sentence rather than an out-of-place starburst is clever. I just wish they could've done without the banner in the top-right, it would just look so much better if all the top of the box was whitespace.

[Nik Daum]

I love that KIX box! It's surprising how similar the Honey Nut Cheerios box looks.

Any idea if these are the actual designs of yesteryear, or just some hybrid of old and new?

[cloistermaximus]

I'd much rather have them make any of the monster cereals available again. I want my Frankenberry!

[Brad Greenwood]

Is the Trix in the box the good 'ol fruit-flavored Kix from when I was a kid? They ruined it with that weird Styrofoam concoction, and I haven't eaten it since.

Is this nothing but retro-covers on the same old (new) cereal?

[Ben Fogarty]

Nice! I love the retro boxes and can't wait to see if they are popping up at my local store! That said, I completely see the logic General Mills going in this direction.

1. Parents ultimately by them and they appeal to the parents. In the end, there is a cute rabbit, sports figure, etc that the kids will dig anyway. That rabbit is meaningless to my kids as they don't exist in their cartoons anyway.

2. Its quiet amongst the noise. When the aisles are filled with the noisy graphic treatment of other cereal boxes, the calm of these boxes calls attention to them

I think this is a really smart move. My favorite is the Kix box! I love the simplicity and honestly web 2.0 did not invent the burst. Its stylistically different than the web 2.0 burst and fits nicely with the style of the box. Some of the other boxes definitely seem more 80s, but then... that is when I was growing up and maybe that strikes a chord in me as well.

Cheers,

[Bunny]

Most of those boxes aren't the "originals", they're later versions. Want to see Lucky as he originally looked? Go here:http://www.theimaginaryworld.com/bslt26.jpg

See the original Kix boxes here:http://www.theimaginaryworld.com/box209.jpg

[Koshka]

As the designer in charge of researching & then recreating the artwork for these retro boxes, every effort was made to be true to the original designs. (excepting where product is shown, that legally has to be the actual current product.) Thanks for the comments (good & bad) knowing that some things are beyond my control - I agree with many of you regarding the bursts. (both versions)

There are MANY versions of Lucky the Leprechaun, and the very first one is indeed quite different than he appears now. There are also many iterations of Trix the rabbit (some are horrific!) We chose specific designs, but they were never intended to be the 'original' or very first of each line.

I'm glad most people seem to like the designs (which has very little to do with me) - there is a wonderful quality to simpler layouts that really brings these out on the shelf compared to the overstuffed/information packed eye pollution that fills shelves today.

there will be more.

[Koshka]

The monster cereals ARE still available - Frankenberry, Count Chocula & Boo Berry. If anyone remembers the fruit flavored one, Fruit Brute, that product did not last long and is not available.

Frankenberry does rock.

[Dave]

Great work, Koshka. I would be interested in purchasing posters/prints of some of these designs (without the T-Shirt graphic, natch). They'd make great art for a kitchen. Any thought of doing something like that?

[Imelda Suriato]

Love the retro Kix! It comes out really cool, with the right type treatment and super simple layout. Love it!

[Astralis]

These are beautiful. The Golden Grahams box is hilarious because many companies still use those old designs. The Honey Nut Cheerios is a mystery, though, because it looks like the new box that I have in my mind. I know that bee was all over the television back then, is he still around?

[Shelby]

The lucky charms are starting to look like that again

[Renee]

Thanks for the memories!

[Michael Casias]

Check out "the haunting in conneticut: slimer edition under google videos for my favorite rare cereal. I also have another retro tribute called "the God Blesser" on youtube, it's the non-religious vid.

[Pete]

if you search on Flickr for vintage packaging - you will see there is a big big increase in people collecting stuff from the 70s and 80s - particularly food (I see new collectors every week - whereas for years I knew only 1 or 2 collections online total.) there was another cereal box craze in the 90s which resulted in a few books, zines , and lots of hologram boxes - but this time some smart advertising guy has tapped into the whole retro-apprication that people who are in their late 20s-early 40s - basically the Gen-Xers - (Im 31) - who were also marketed collectibles to death in the late 80s/early 90s (do you remember mutiple comic book covers - tons of extra sport-card sets popping up..etc) - all that combined - plus exhaustive showings of I Love the 80s and I Love the 70s - it doesnt seem weird to me at all - but then again - I collect old food boxes - (started off merely bottle digging) - I imagine all this retro packaging will inspire more people looking for the actual old stuff...etcbut I digress...Petehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/15501552@N07/sets/72157603919752068/