Honey Nut Cheerios
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Honey Nut Cheerios is a variation of Cheerios breakfast cereal, introduced in 1979 by the General Mills cereal company. This is the second variation from Original Cheerios, it is sweeter than the original, with a honey and almond flavor. While this product used to be made with actual nuts, as of 2006, the nuts were discontinued, and natural flavor used instead.

Mascot and promotions

Their mascot is an anthropomorphic bee, designed for the first commercials by Dean Yeagle at Zander's Animation Parlour in NYC. The bee buzzed around without a name until 2000, when Kristine Tong, a fifth grade student from Coolidge, Texas, won a national contest to name the bee, dubbing him ''BuzzBee''. The name was later shortened to just Buzz. Buzz was originally voiced by Arnold Stang until around 1992. He is currently voiced by Billy West (of Futurama fame). Buzz also appeared as the host in the Honey Nut Cheerios Spelling Bee game, which was named after the breakfast cereal.

Historically, Honey Nut Cheerios has participated in much the same promotional advertising as the original brand, while collaborating with the field of NASCAR and especially driver Bill Lester, in promoting healthy diets. In 1985, Baskin Robbins introduced a flavor based on the cereal called Honey Nut Crunch. Promotional tie ins included gift certificates in cereal boxes and special Honey Nut Crunch sundaes in stores.

Advertising

Commercials for the product have been a mainstay of Saturday morning cartoon programming for many years. They generally depict the mascot tempting a hapless child or adult with a sparkling bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios, and their attempts to compete for it. The styles of commercials have changed over the years. In the early 1980s, commercials mostly featured adults talking about the cereal and how good and healthy it is. During a majority of the 1980s and 1990s, commercials would mostly be about Buzz trying to tempt someone with a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios. They'd normally refuse, but Buzz would not give up; he'd eventually tell them that the cereal contains real golden honey and crunchy nuts, and the consumer would respond, ''Did you say honey and nuts?'', and have the cereal.

Commercials in the late 1990s voiced by Andrew ''Andy'' Morris, would be about Buzz coming into a classic fairy tale and do the same thing he's always done in the past. Commercials in the 2000s are mostly animated adventures about Buzz and his friends outsmarting villains trying to steal all the honey in the hive. Most recently, some commercials have been featured in CGI.

One Honey Nut Cheerios commercial that has gone on to become one of the longest running commercials in history features Buzz paying a visit to the infamous Ebenezer Scrooge. This commercial (which first premiered in the late Fall of 1989) was eventually revised to reflect the newer Buzz voice by Andy Morris in the mid Nineties, when the cereal's tagline was changed to ''Nobody can say No to Honey Nut Cheerios''. This commercial generally re-airs during each winter holiday season. The new voice for Buzz since 2004 is Charlie Schlatter. The new Buzz phrase is ''Bee Happy, Bee Healthy.'' Since 2009, Heath Brandon has been the announcer voice over (AVO) for Honey Nut Cheerios.

Taglines

Many of this cereal's taglines overlapped with each other. They were used on different advertisements.

It's a honey of an O. (1979 - 1990)
It's Honey Nut Cheerios! (1979 - 1992; 2000 - 2004)
It's Irrezzzzistable! (1992 - 1993)
Race for the taste! (1993 - 1995)
Little O, Big Taste! (1995 - 1999)
Nobody can say ''No'' to Honey Nut Cheerios. (1995 - 2004)
Bee happy, bee healthy! (2001 - Current)
From the hive that's nuts about honey! (c.2004 - present)

Health appeal

Honey Nut Cheerios maintains much of the same health appeal of the original Cheerios, due to its soluble fiber. Package nutritional information explains that ''three grams of soluble fiber daily from whole grain oat foods, like Honey Nut Cheerios, in a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol, may reduce the risk of heart disease. Honey Nut Cheerios has 0.75g per serving.'' This has been linked to the ability to lower cholesterol. As with Cheerios, the American Heart Association certified the cereal as "heart-healthy" for meeting the food criteria for saturated fat and cholesterol content.