1960s cereal Archives - Retro Reminiscing Video and Pictures

The New Country Corn Flakes commercial stood out to me as a kid, and I still remember it to this day. So I guess it was an effective ad.

It was not flashy by today’s standards. There were no cartoon mascots running around, no big prize reveal, and no wild animation. Instead, it had that plain, old-fashioned country feel, with a serious farm couple look that reminded people of American Gothic.

That may be why it stuck. The ad was simple, a little odd, and very catchy. It kept repeating the name and selling the idea that these corn flakes were crispier, toastier, and just a little different from the usual bowl of cereal.

Looking back, it feels like a perfect example of early 1960s advertising. Sometimes the commercials that stayed with us were not the loudest ones. They were the ones that had a strange little rhythm, a memorable image, or a jingle that somehow never left your head.

Do you remember New Country Corn Flakes, or is there another cereal commercial that has stayed with you all these years?

Post Rice Krinkles is one of those cereals that makes you wonder what exactly was going on in the advertising room.

It started as Sugar Rice Krinkles, a sweet puffed rice cereal, and Post first sold it with circus-style ads and Krinkles the Clown. Back then, clowns were still considered fun, friendly, and perfect for kids. Looking at him now, though, he has that unsettling “why is this staring at me during breakfast?” energy.

Then around 1960, Post replaced the clown with So-Hi, a small Asian boy character used to sell a rice cereal. The name was a play on “so high,” because he was short, but the character leaned hard into Asian stereotypes that would never fly today. It was the kind of lazy advertising shortcut that was common at the time: rice cereal, so they reached for an Asian caricature.

And no, this did not evolve into Snap, Crackle, and Pop. That was Kellogg’s Rice Krispies, a different cereal from a different company. Post Rice Krinkles was more connected to Post’s later rice cereal ideas, especially the road that eventually led toward Pebbles.

So it basically went from creepy clown to racial stereotype, all in the name of making cereal memorable to kids. And that’s the part that sticks out today. These mascots were meant to be cute and catchy, but looking back, they show how different, and often tone-deaf, advertising could be.

Rice Krinkles eventually faded away by the end of the 1960s, but the mascots are still remembered because they’re so bizarre. One scared kids by accident. The other should have made adults know better.

Tag: 1960s cereal

New Country Corn Flakes

From Scary To Racist