Pebbles cereal

Fruity Pebbles and Cocoa Pebbles are brands of breakfast cereal introduced by Post Cereals in 1971 featuring characters from the animated series The Flintstones. Cocoa Pebbles contains chocolate-flavored crispy rice cereal bits, while Fruity Pebbles contains crispy rice cereal bits that come in a variety of fruit flavors. It is also the longest running cereal based on characters from a TV series or movie.

Product history

Fruity Pebbles and Cocoa Pebbles Cereal were reintroductions of a low share of market Post children's cereal brand called Sugar Rice Krinkles. The Product Group Manager at the time, Larry Weiss, licensed use of The Flintstones for cereal from Hanna-Barbera in an attempt to reinvigorate the children's cereal business for Post Cereals. Prior to that time, character licensing had been used promotionally, but there had never been a brand created around a media character. The brand was marketed despite internal concern it would be a fad and not last more than a year. Cocoa Pebbles and Fruity Pebbles were simultaneously introduced on the West Coast in 1969 and strong consumer demand led to national distribution. The brand has been one of the most consistent best sellers ever since.

The original working names for the companion cereals were Flint Chips and Rubble Stones, consistent with the appearance of the cereal and The Flintstone's Stone Age imagery. Frank Corey, Benton & Bowles' creative head for the Post Cereal business suggested the alternative names Cocoa Pebbles and Fruity Pebbles, which were adopted.

The basic product retained the Sugar Rice Krinkles form, using the existing expander process and Battle Creek production facilities. The flavors, colors and other product formulations were carefully developed by Battle Creek product experts supported by marketing using the Linescale research technique. The objective was to create product characteristics which matched the expectations of both children and parents for what The Flintstones cereals should look and taste like. After many iterations, the Cocoa Pebbles formula was set and has remained largely unchanged over the years. Fruity Pebbles also remained essentially unchanged for decades. In recent years some additions and variations have been made to the Fruity Pebbles product formulation.

Unlike its sister cereal Cocoa Pebbles (which has remained essentially the same product, except for the addition of polydextrose in 2006), Fruity Pebbles has undergone many formula additions and variants such as "Half Sugar Fruity Pebbles", "Cinna-Crunch Pebbles", "Dino Pebbles" (late 1980s- early 1990s), "Marshmallow Mania Pebbles", and "Bamm-Bamm Pebbles". The cereal started out with three flavors: Orange, cherry, and lemon. New flavors were added over time such as grape in 1980, lime in 1984, Berry Blue in 1994, Incrediberry Purple in 1995 and Bedrock Berry Pink in 2005. A berry cereal called Bamm-Bamm Berry Pebbles was released in 2007; although they are like Fruity Pebbles, they only feature berry flavors. The formula for both versions of Pebbles had a major addition in 2006: polydextrose became a key ingredient.

Television commercials

The commercials would have a typical skit and plot. Fred Flintstone would be eating some pebbles while Barney Rubble would want some as well and so Barney would either disguise himself or distract Fred from the pebbles with singing dancing or swimming. While Fred is distracted Barney would eat some pebbles but Fred would find out about Barney's lies and angry about his breakfast taken he would normally yell in anger, "BARNEY! MY PEBBLES!" while Barney would run off and Fred would give chase. It was only during a Christmas commercial where Fred by the urging of Santa Claus forgave Barney for stealing the Pebbles and agreed to share them.

Cupcake Pebbles

In 2010, a new cake batter flavor of pebbles came out called Cupcake Pebbles. The cereal is white with small rainbow sprinkles, and has the aroma of cupcakes.

References

External links

Nutrition Facts for Fruity Pebbles Cereal

Kraft Foods product listing

Category:1971 introductions Category:Post Cereals brands Category:The Flintstones