Who Invented Cheerios?

Cheerios is a type of breakfast cereal that has been around for over half of a century. It’s part of the General Mills cereal family, and it is an extremely popular brand of cereal. It comes in many different flavors and types, but all of the flavors are known for their “o” shaped cereal.

Cheerios was invented at General Mills. In 1941, the cereal was introduced to the market. It was advertised as the first ready to eat oat cereal that didn’t require any cooking. However, it was first sold under the name of Cheeri Oats.

General Mills decided to change the name to Cheerios because of the “o” shape in the cereal. The Cheerio Milling & Supply Company had actually been using the name Cheerios and Cheeri-Oats since 1929 on wheat cereals, so General Mills negotiated the rights to the name in 1940.

In 1949, Cheerios developed a mascot for the cereal. It was a cartoon character by the name of Cheeri O’Leary. This helped the cereal appeal to children. Soon after the development of Cheeri O’Leary, Cheerios became the sponsor of “The Lone Ranger” radio show. Cheerios became known across the country after this, and soon became one of the most popular breakfast cereals.

The Cheerios Kid

In the mid fifties, Cheerios changed its advertising scheme away from Cheeri O’Leary. Now, Cheerios advertised using the Cheerios Kid. The Cheerios Kid was initially marketed as an absent minded, slow individual. Since he was clumsy and slow, he annoyed his girlfriend in the commercials.

However, once he began to eat Cheerios, his personality changed. He became more intelligent and suave. This advertising scheme was extremely successful, and lasted for almost twenty years.

In the late sixties, the character of Sue was added to the commercials. Cheerios Kid became almost a super hero, with Sue by his side. The Cheerios Kid and Sue would frequently get into some type of trouble in the commercials. Sue would ask the Cheerios Kid to help her. Then, the Cheerios Kid would eat a bowl of Cheerios, and “power up.” After eating the cereal, he could then solve the problem quickly and with ease.

Cheerios Theme Song

Cheerios again changed the advertisement in the mid seventies away from the Cheerios Kid. This time, the commercials depicted a “stick-man” who chased after a cereal box. The cereal box yodeled as the man chased it down.

Specifically, the box would yodel, “Cheerio-ee-oh-ee-ohs,” as the man attempted to catch the box. Once the man joined in the yodeling, the cereal box would stop running away and join the man by his side. This created a type of theme song for Cheerios. In later commercials, the yodeling box would find the stick-man to remind him to eat a good breakfast.

Since the seventies, there have been a number of different commercials for Cheerios, including commercials with celebrities such as Shawn Johnson. During the eighties, Cheerios produced a number of different commercials using the characters from the comic strip, Peanuts.

Cheerios Varieties

There are a number of different varieties of Cheerios which have been introduced since the debut of the cereal. In 1979, Honey Nut Cheerios was introduced, and has been on the market ever since. It is a sweeter version of the original cereal, but has almost the same amount of calories.

Some of the other versions include:

• Apple Cinnamon Cheerios
• MultiGrain Cheerios
• Frosted Cheerios
• Yogurt Burst Cheerios
• Chocolate Cheeries
• Berry Burst Cheerios

Some of the flavors of Cheerios that were introduced, but are no longer on the market include the following: Team Cheerios, Millenios, and Cheerios and X’s.

Thus, now that you know some of the history behind the cereal, and who invented Cheerios, you can appreciate it more next time you purchase a box of the delicious treat!