Lucky Charms

Lucky Charms is a popular brand of breakfast cereal produced by the General Mills cereal company of Golden Valley, Minnesota. The cereal consists of two main components: small, toasted bits of oat frosted with sugar and multicolored marshmallows in various shapes.

The cereal was invented in 1963 by then vice-president of General Mills, John Holahan. Holahan claimed to have gotten the idea for the cereal when he happened upon some orange marshmallow peanuts, a candy common in circuses at the time. Holahan cut up several of the peanuts and sprinkled them over Cheerios, another oat-bit cereal, and he "knew we had a winner." Lucky Charms was the first cereal to include marshmallows, and until his death in a Minnesota car accident on August 28, 2000, Holahan often visited schools and other speaking venues touting his creation and selling of Lucky Charms as "a lesson in creativity in marketing".

Marshmallows

The main selling point for Lucky Charms has always been the marshmallows (or "marbits" as General Mills calls them). The first boxes of Lucky Charms cereal contained marshmallows in the shapes of pink hearts, yellow moons, orange stars, and green clovers. The lineup has changed occasionally over the years, beginning with the introduction of blue diamonds in 1975. Purple horseshoes joined the roster in 1984, followed by red balloons in 1989, balloons with stars in them in 1991, rainbows in 1992, pots of gold in 1994, and leprechaun hats in 1996.

Generally as General Mills introduces new shapes, older marshmallows are phased out. The first marbits to be phased out were the yellow moons and blue diamonds, as General Mills introduced their "Pot of Gold" marshmallow. Since they already had a yellow marbit, they changed the yellow moons to blue moons and eliminated the blue diamonds. Sometimes the marbit phase outs are done quietly, other times the changes form the basis for various commercials and other promotional materials. The current assortment thus consists of purple horseshoes; red balloons; blue moons; orange and white stars; yellow and orange pots of gold; pink, yellow, and blue rainbows; two-tone green leprechaun hats; pink hearts (the only shape to survive since the beginning); with the most recent addition being the return of the clovers in 2004. There have also been slight cosmetic changes in the marbits, as when the orange star changed from six points to five in 1995 and when all of the colors were brightened that same year. Other marshmallows have appeared as short-term promotions, such as a whale shape in 1986, shapes based on the Olympic Games in 1996, and marshmallows shaped like various world landmarks in 1999. The marshmallows also grew in size in 2004.

The Lucky Charms theme song is a product jingle that describes the contents of the box:

Hearts, stars and horseshoes!

Clovers and blue moons!

Pots of gold and rainbows!

And me red balloons!

The first three lines are generally said by the various children in the commercial, with the last line being said by Lucky the Leprechuan himself (see below).

Lucky the Leprechaun

From the beginning, the mascot for the Lucky Charms has been a leprechaun who can change plain white marshmallows into mystical shapes. When he was introduced in 1964, this character was known as "L.C. Leprechaun", but his name was eventually changed to Lucky. In addition to appearing on the Lucky Charms cereal box, Lucky also stars in each animated Lucky Charms commercial. In these advertisements (long a staple of American children's television), Lucky is usually chased by several children who want his cereal, a fact which prompts him to utter his famous catch phrase (in a highly exaggerated Irish accent), "They're always after me Lucky Charms!" The commercials usually end with Lucky singing the cereal's slogan: "Frosted Lucky Charms, they're magically delicious!" (This has since been changed, with "frosted Lucky Charms" being replaced with "that's me Lucky Charms"). Lucky's voice was performed by voice actor Arthur Anderson from 1969 to 1992.

For a brief period of time, Lucky the Leprechaun was replaced as the cereal's mascot by a bumbling, inept wizard; but Lucky was returned when sales of the cereal declined as a result.

External link

• Cereal.com - Lucky Charms Page (http://www.cereal.com/Breakfast-Cereals/luckycharms.htm)
• Topher's Breakfast Cereal Character Guide (http://www.lavasurfer.com/cereal-generalmills.html)