In the 1980's, crass consumerism hit every facet of life at the time. Greed was good, as they say, and the movie studios decided to tap every possible revenue stream they could find. Enter Ralston Purina, who had decided that making food for pets wasn't as lucrative as making food for children, so they entered the cereal aisle with gusto. But with few recognizable brands, how could they compete with Post or Kellogg? By giving the movie studios cash for movie themed cereals!
Well technically he's a mogwai, not a gremlin...
Who knew Bazooka Joe bubble gum was part of a balanced breakfast?
The only thing more gruesome than the Addams Family was this cereal...
Okay, who was the target audience for this cereal?!?
Ralston embraced a "hit and run" policy with these cereals. They would flood the market with boxes of the latest fad cereal when the movie hit theaters, make their money, then move onto the next big thing. Most of these cereals were essentially the same fake mapley flavor just crafted into different shapes with a different picture on the box. Unfortunately for Ralston, kids eventually wised up and their licensing business model eventually died out in the mid 1990's.
