Why Is America So Obsessed with Cereal? 

No because as a kid I hated the “mascot never gets the cereal in the end” trope because it made me soooo sad lol

My parents were aware of how bad most cereals were, so they made me look at the nutritional facts and if the sugar was under a certain number; i could add it to the cart. Mostly my cereals were ones with dried fruit. Even today, when my cereal restrictions are nonexistent, i still move away from the sweet ones, only occasionally sprinkling a handful of sweet cereal to my bowl of healthy cereal as a little treat.

I thought the Cookie Crisp wolf was so cool, and that was my favorite cereal as a kid . Looking back It’s crazy to me that I was eating actual cookies as a meal

After actually watching some episodes of The Flintstones, seeing Fred Flintstone having that big dumb smile on the front of the Pebbles boxes is hilarious because of how out-of-character it is. It's like if they made Squidward from SpongeBob SquarePants a cereal mascot and they made him smile on all the cereal boxes, lol.

I grew up in Philippines, our household’s breakfast is usually eggs, hotdogs and rice. Because of the movie influence, I ask my parents to buy me a cereal. When I tried it, it’s good but it’s just too sweet. I feel like I’m eating a dessert rather than breakfast. I told them I’m not eating cereal as breakfast anymore, so I just kept the cereal as more of after-school snack where I treated it like eating chips (I didn’t put milk on it cuz it makes it soggy and I eat really slow so yea).

I remember as a kid I loved Tucan Sam. He felt less like a wacky mascot and had more of a soft spoken paternal figure vibe. I remember I even had a few toys of him. It's kinda crazy to look back on how much I loved the character when he wasnt even from a show or a movie or anything, but was just a mascot for a cereal company. It's weird how many of the things I found so much comfort and joy in as a child were created purley with monetary gain in mind.

My parents were pretty strict with cereal. I almost never had them. I now eat cereal as a dessert.

When I lived in the US for a while, I was FASCINATED by the cereal section at my local Walmart. I tried so many flavors that were new to me. Most of them weren't even good (looking at the Reeses and Hersheys Cookies and Cream cereals specifically lmao) but it was the novelty of trying all these cool cereals we didn't have back at home. Maybe that's why I had gained 10 kilos by the time I returned home lmao

This had me fully engaged the entire time. I barely blinked. The content/information, photos/videos, editing, tone, overall presentation, everything... you did such an amazing job

I think another thing to consider is the fact that public schools give these cereals out during breakfast, I remember that Reese's Puffs were scarcely given as an option(compared to other cereals such as lucky charms, Froot Loops, and Honey Nut Cheerios) and on the days it was- practically everyone would grab it.

In my country we call any cereal "cornflakes" and i think thats funny😭 i've gotten so used to it, even the blatant mispronounciation of it

That was a really good video, whenever I've been to america I've always been shocked by how sugar filled everything is, it was interesting to learn about it.

Omgg I'm from Chile!! It is true, we have been robbed from cereal mascots.. however, if the cereal is "healthy" enough, it can be advertised with cartoons, but they're usually an off-brand diet version. (I love watching other cultures' differences about nostalgia stuff, I enjoy your videos so much!)

It's no mistake that a cereal theme park would have been opened in Minnesota, or more specifically in Minneapolis. Aside from the fact that MOA was the biggest mall in the world at the time, General Mills and several other major processed grain companies are headquartered in Minneapolis or have strong ties to the city due to its history as the flour milling capital of the world back in the day.

This video made me remember the time I would spend playing on the computer on Trix and McDonalds online game websites. I also remember that each McDonalds happy meals would include a code that would be used to earn in-game currency to buy costumes for your self-insert character. Good thing I lost my password for my account so I do not see their marketing anymore. Anyway, this was a really interesting history of cereal and this video definitely deserve more views.

The reason that the Trix rabbit never gets to eat the cereal is a literary conceit. That's how you create a serial story (pun intended) where the plot of every episode is "rabbit wants cereal". Toucan Sam also spent most ads looking for cereal but he always got it in the end so you dont even remember that wanting cereal is one of his character traits.

I couldn’t imagine a world without cereal. I be eating cereal everyday and when there isn’t any cereal, I’ll actually be a little sad

I know I can't complain given that I'm from the country whose most popular theme park is based around a brand of crisps... but seriously, a cereal themed attraction in the Mall of America?

Frosted Flakes being called “frosties” is just because Australians love to shorten names.

I've always liked how the Cereal Mascots in the commercials during the early 2000s had lore to them remember when Toucan and his nephews traveled for different combos of Fruit Loops,Lucky running away from the kids that want his Lucky Charms Cereal,Cocoa Puff Bird going coo! Coo! For Cocoa Puffs, and Apple and Cinnamon having a rivalry then became friends. Not to mention the Cocoa Pebbles commercials were funny to watch as well I miss that era.

God, seeing Millsberry was a blast from the past. Everyone was OBSESSED with it when I was in elementary school. It really was its own social network of sorts. Whenever we had free time in the classroom, we'd all hop on the computers and play with each other. As much of a giant advertisement as it was, I lowkey kind of miss it... I remember spending hours in the arcade, as well as doing that one fishing activity/minigame where you could pull up random stuff from the lake a certain number of times per day, (or at least that's how I remember it being). I always got junk, like old boots and stuff like that, but I dreamed of one day getting some "ultra rare" item that none of my friends had. Good times.

You seem to be well spoken and very intuitive about the topic your covering. Great video i hope you get more traction and views! Subscribed.

This is not only a problem in the US, most people in Mexico and Canada also grew up eating cereal for breakfast so it’s definitely more of a North America thing (I’m from Mexico and I grew up eating froot loops, cookie crisp and cornpop cereal)

I'm a Brazilian who's never left Brazil and I think that the biggest culture shock I ever had. wow.

Funny thing is, my nephews actually really dislike the sickly sweet mascot cereals and prefer to eat stuff like Honey Bunches whenever possible. It's like the cereals are overdoing it so much that the kids are starting to dislike it, which is quite the feat

The addiction to cereal is real, I haven't had any in years but sometimes when my blood sugar is low I can have a waking dream about diving headfirst into a bowl of sugar. Love your content too, you got a great voice for your videos!

I live in the UK and we barley have any cereal. My favourite cereal as a 14 year old who has to eat quickly for school is Coco Pops. Coco Pops are Rice Krispies coated in chocolate. They’re quite nice. If anyone reading this is visiting the UK I highly recommend them.

Growing up eating sugary cereal, the first time I had European muesli it blew my mind. It was so so much more subtle and harty - it was like a meal instead of a treat or dessert. It quickly became my go to breakfast due to how contrasting it was.

Hardly ever does my family have cereal (we have fruit instead) but when we do, we usually have Kashi branded items. A cool thing about Kashi, is that rather then making a mascot, they just feature an enlarged image of the cereal. I think it's a very clever mascot-less tactic.

I remember walking into a store called 'American Candy' (I live in the UK) and there was a shelf for various American cereals lmao Also there was a baby shark cereal. Because of course there is...

Now knowing how Artery-clogging cereals can be, I mostly stay away from Cereal and now mostly eat a piece of fruit or a whole grain bagel with low-fat cream cheese when I go to school. Ever since i got the news I was prediabetic I made sure to really take the labels seriously and found out why doctors hate cereal.

One of the main sponsors for the first two seasons of The Flintstones was Winston cigarettes and the characters would be used in their commercials, so shilling breakfast cereals instead by the time I was a kid was actually a step in a healthier direction (not to mention that they made Flintstones vitamins as well). I guess it was one of those IPs that you could use to promote basically anything as long as the check cleared.

I remember having a transformers or transformer looking or halo looking or power ranger looking themed Cinnamon Toast Crunch video game tie in that I never played but did see the sprites of by simply putting it in a DVD player, thinking it would turn into a movie.

Holy crap this video unlocked memories I didn’t know I had. The amount of nostalgia I have for Millsberry makes me want to play again.

Mall of America is my local mall and my younger sister and I would go to Cereal Adventure as often as we could when it was open! It was never super busy when we went and it was just a really chill time, I remember really liking this one Trix video computer game outside the more memorable physical experiences. I did get an overpriced personalized box of mixed cereal (you get to choose what cereal you want inside), the cereal is long gone but I still have the box as a keepsake, it’s got my name on it.

I found your channel about two days ago, and your work is so amazing!!! I cant stop watching these videos, they are so interesting!! Keep up the amazing work!! ❤

Growing up I actually hated the really sweet cereals. I wouldn't even eat honey nut cheerios because they were too sweet for my taste. My favorite cereals consisted of corn flakes, plain cheerios, and rice krispies because they just tasted plain. Now days I like a bit more sugary cereals like fruity pebbles and frosted flakes, but I still prefer the plain ones. I guess it just felt like I wasn't eating breakfast when I ate super sweet cereals.

There was a previous General Mills website before Millsberry, I can't remember what it was called, but Millsberry replaced it. It was a flash game collection at a school, there was a game where you constructed cocoa puffs with Sonny and another one where you played hangman with the honey nuts cheerio bee.

First off I just wanted to let you know I binged all of your videos today lolz. Second, my mom and I used to spend so much time playing Millberry back when I was little, and every now and then I would remember it in a nostalgic moment but never have the name and NONE of my friends knew what I was trying to describe to them. So thank you so much for solving that mystery for me.

Lucio-Oh's is probably the strangest cereal collab

My parents never let us have really sugary cereal, but I BEGGED my mom for Cookie Crisp one time. It was pretty expensive, so she said “If I get this, you have to finish the whole box. You cannot waste it.” I HATED it. I finished the box, extremely slowly, and never asked for cereal ever again lol.

Your videos are so good, I'm so happy I found your channel. I hope your channel grows a lot, it's so worth it. I'm looking forward to new uploads, your videos relax me a lot!

I've been trying to remember what Millsbury was called for like a decade now. I loved the art style, and the reminders to get outside were actually pretty helpful for mindfulness for a kid who could hyperfocus on the screen for 6 hours at a time. I also don't like their cereals and never really have, so win-win for me!

I started watching you a couple of weeks ago, and this might be my new favorite youtube channel 😅❤️💯 I see a lot of growth in your future, keep it up! ☺️❤️💯

When I was a kid, there was a Timon and Pumba cereal called "Mud n Bugs" that I absolutely loved. I was always a skinny kid, so a bit of a sugary breakfast wasn't a big deal for me. But damn, was that cereal not healthy at all. It was the same for pretty much every cereal that I enjoyed as a kid. One of the biggest ones was when they had cereals for Pokemon or Yu-Gi-Oh, which were my favorite series. Like, they really got us all with that marketing. I don't eat cereal anymore, but if I did have kids, I wouldn't let them eat any cereals. It's all terrible.

Great video dude, first I've seen from you really enjoyed it. Hope 2023 is a big year for you!

The question is, how they got parents to approve the sugary stuff as a healthy breakfast. As cerial was originally just plain grains, didn't they notice when sugar became the main ingredient, or didn't they just care?

I was absolutely obsessed with Postopia and Millsbury as a kid. I still kind of wish I could play Millsbury as an adult. RIP to both

Cereal doesn't sound like a word anymore and I still have half the video to go

I love ur videos so much! I’ve pretty much watched all of them at this point! Great content

I remember liking coco pops a LOT as a kid. This was around the time the Star wars Episode I: phantom menace was released so you got a bunch of star wars cards with those reflective surfaces that changed picture when you tilted it, also some kind of plastic figures of the characters in the movie. I was also playing a lot of Ocarina of Time around this time, eating coco pops!

i got a diabetes insulin tracker ad about halfway through this video and i can’t help but find that funny

OMG THE CRUNCHLINGS 😭💗

I always love your informational videos on topics like this, thank you 🎉

a craving for a sweet breakfast instead if savory is still a habit I can’t kick even in my 20’s. nothing is more satisfying than a chocolate chip muffin or a vanilla (and sweet) flavored yogurt in the morning

I had no idea that there were so many products based on cereal, the most i've seen on my country are cereal bars but those failed quite quickly bc they were too sweet even for us, they're still being sold but i doubt they have many sales , ive barely seen people buy them. Something that's also interesting is that in my house cereal is not really breakfast but dinner, since my mom only gave us cereal on breakfast when she had no time to cook bc we were late to school i associated it with easy and cheap food that can fill your stomach for a while until you get another food, so since my mom doesn't cook dinner ( my family grew in the countryside , they dont really get dinner so even when they moved we still didn't grew with that being a thing) we just picked whatever is around and eat before sleep and that's what cereal became to me, which funny enough is the reason as to why i can't eat anything after 9 pm anymore, my stomach can't handle it and ofc i stopped eating that when i discovered it was making me have stomach pains at night Is also too sweet for my current taste, no idea how i enjoyed eating it that much lol

In Europe, babies are delivered by storks. In US, they come as freebies in boxes of cereal.

i grew up in minneapolis in the late 90s through the 2010s. one of my moms favorite pictures of me growing up was in the cheerios spoon slide pit at Cereal Adventure! i had to have been no more than 5, so i don’t remember it a ton but i look back on pictures fondly! that was back when it was Camp Snoopy and not Nickelodeon Adventure. also, cereal culture was HUGE in the early 2000s, and i think minnesotans were at the center of it all. st. paul is a port city on the mississippi and was a huge wheat producer and distributor throughout the industrial revolution. both General Mills and Kelloggs started and still run out of the twin cities area. i never put it all together in my head until this video! great job, and thanks for the trip down memory lane!

I can’t stand cereal but I don’t think it’s all bad I feel like the more “adult” ones without added sugar that also add a source of fiber are fine eating with milk and some fresh fruit isn’t that bad of a breakfast honestly

Another banger of a video ☺️ Funny enough I don’t think I was ever into the super sugary breakfasts as a kiddo - most of my breakfasts before school were microwaved scrambled eggs lmao. I was just never into the taste of most cereals. I still ate cereal from time to time, but it was those cereals that targeted like health-conscious adults or something (ie Post Selects Banana Nut Crunch and Blueberry Morning). It wasn’t even because I was concerned with my health (I was and still am a fat kid lmao), I just liked how it tasted. Looking back they probably still weren’t good for you to begin with either (had a lotta fiber but still a lotta sugar, plus some iteration of it had a carcinogen in the ingredients lmaoooo), but 8 y.o. me loved my gramma breakfasts. Throw some sliced bananas in there and I was all set.

Your last line got me lol. I also live abroad and I feel its fueled my cereal obsession even more now that its so limited. My parents thought I was crazy when I wanted to take a picture of the cereal aisle for my friends where I live.

I love how you always tie it back to video games. I’m going to watch every single video now.

I'm so happy you talked about the websites! I remember playing on them back in the day. I remember my sister and I would copy the codes from the Pillsbury boxes in store because they had them printed outside the box. Evil little kids, I know, but we needed it to get cool cereal merch online. 😆

I (european) am absolutely a cereal for breakfast guy (tho it's more Muesli than the sweet cereals. I also like to mix my own muesli). I visited the states when I was 16 and my host family called me the cereal killer because i got so obsessed with all the different cereal options there and i took like 5 boxes back home with me 😭😂

The cereal straws was a real throwback when you mentioned it, in elementary one of my teachers introduced us to cereal straws and I was obsessed but only really had it a handful of times. I never enjoyed overly sweet cereals, especially those with marshmallows 😖😖 growing up I really only liked eating Frosted Flakes and Chex (my favorite flavor was strawberry)

thank u for making so much great content like this

I grew way too attached to my crunchlings. That Captain - sorry, Cap'n Crunch game made me the gamer I am today. 😂

i was a big cereal guy as a kid but these days i only have a bowl as a treat from time to time. it really is more of a dessert than a breakfast.

The second I heard you say "cereal adventure" I was really hoping you would mention Scott Cramer's video and I'm so glad you did!!!! Also, I love that all of your videos have a cute themed background, it's such a fun little detail

I never left Postopia as a kid! I grew up in the UK so could never try the cereals but the advertising really worked - I was obsessed with the idea of them.

I spent an unhealthy amount of time on millsbury as a kid, you have unlocked weird childhood memories that I completely forgotten about

I’m eating cereal while watching this

Oh man you completely unlocked Millsberry memories for me! I had totally forgetten about it but yeah, I spent many hours on that website. Around the same time as that Trolls site was still active if I remember correctly. I just loved any kind of virtual world game.

I haven’t thought about my crunch long I’m YEARS but I LOVED playing that as a kid omg I’m so nostalgic

Tbh, as a person who stopped eating cereal altogether, it's worth it, you're not missing much and you really don't need that much sugar in your diet.

My former roommate and I got our cereal from the food pantry at our local church. For some reason everyone donated lucky charms. We also found it at the local dollar tree which was next door to the church. It was out of season but still good. I don't eat cereal anymore but I wouldnt mind another bowl of lucky charms.

My elementary school computer lab had the cap'n crunch game and I would always play it during free time. I remember not being able to make it past the first 2 screens but something about it was so appealing to me.

you have the best videos! keep it up💓

"Why is America-" Consumerism. The answer is consumerism. Always.

Bro, you just awakened a memory of with the games. I used to play them *religiously* whenever mom and I visited the library. Those were good times, man, good times 😌👌

I am so glad to hear someone mention Millsberry. I loved playing that game but you sre the only person I've ever heard talk about it

The section on Millsberry unlocked a memory I had forgotten. Great video!!

As a European I had American cereal for the first time, and it felt like I was eating crack, the fact that my muscles did not spas with enough force to make me shoot out through my roof is a miracle. Truly American cereal is not cereal it’s 49% crack 49% sugar and 2% grain.

A lot of the sugar in a bowl of cereal comes from the milk as well, so substituting that for unsweetened almond milk may be a good idea.

my favorite cereal is a mix of fresh fruit (preferably berries) soaked with water. usually, I rinse the water out, and I'm left with some amazing fruit that is softer, but not too soggy.

Great video and also, love the choice of We Happy Few music!

cause its delicious, its totally a desert (even many of the "healthy options", which are my favorite, are still not super good for you), but i still love them. also chex quest is a fun game, its quite easy (only the pseudo-official chex quest 3 has even even a bit of challenge, and even that is still probably much easier than most of doom2, though it doesn't help that ive probably played hundreds of doom maps), but its a very fun and charming shooter and made me buy some chex to go with the playthrough.

I’m 16 and I know who the Flintstones are, they played it on Boomerang

your channel is so unique and awesome. I really like it

I think the sheer variety of products can be explained in that the companies that produce cereal products have people working for them who make like $70-80,000 a year to come up with new ideas, and if they don't come up with new ideas they're redundant and not needed anymore. So they come up with all sorts of "new" bullshit to justify their own salaries.

This sounds weird but the way you pronounce your consonants is so satisfying?? You have the perfect and clearly enunciated voice for commentary videos.

You guys eat cereal? we asian eat rice *aggressively eat rice*

love ur channel!!!

I also played those post games. You unlocked memories.

cereal tastes good af but it's no wonder America has a childhood obesity crisis The first time i saw Little Debbie cereal i almost choked.

Honestly, I've always hated cereal. I could never get how it was supposed to taste good, even the most sugary ones. The worst aspect was always it getting soggy after two minutes.

yoooooo tysm for mentioning big mouth life at 12:12 , i completely forgot about that game. my family never bought name brand cereals so of COURSE i couldnt get past the paywalls lmao

I remember playing on the general Mills website when I was younger! Nostalgia.

Eat a bowl of fruit. Whoops. Sugar is sugar. Great video though, you'll be a great documentor!

As a 1998 CA kid who visited my MN family most summers and went to the MOA "camp snoopy" theme park every year, sometimes a couple times a summer, I had absolutely NO IDEA it was Cereal Adventure before it was the 'Snoopy and Woodstock camping in the forest' theme that I loved growing up.. My cousins and I were all shocked and a little bit upset when it changed to the Nickelodeon theme it still is today even though many of the rides were just rebranded at the time.. I remember having feelings that they "sold out" even though I guess it turns out it wasn't actually licensed as Camp Snoopy as long as I thought I remembered. I'm 24 now and feel too big for the rides whenever I visit the actual mall (which I completely ignored as a child), but I'll always be team Camp Snoopy which feels more fitting for Minnesota IMO 🥲