MEMORIES:
the_cookiemonster35 remembers...Watch the movie while playing with the action figures and slime AND enjoying your Ghostbusters cereal! I ain't afraid of ... More »
Posted on 05/01/09
PHOTOS:
Set to the tune of Ray Parker’s “Ghostbusters”…
“There’s something weird, with the neighbor hood
You find some ghosts in some flavored oats!
Ghostbusters, with milk and juice and toast!
A complete breakfast with a ghost!”
As if movie box office domination wasn’t enough… as if aisles full of toys at Toys R’ Us weren’t enough… as if a hit Saturday Morning TV show wasn’t enough… for the biggest fans of the Ghostbusters series, there was only one cereal to be eating along with your Hi-C Ecto Cooler: Ghostbusters Cereal.
Orange and red oat puffs swimming in milk alongside white ghost marshmallows - there simply wasn’t a better way to start the day. Well, sort of. The success of Ghostbusters Cereal was somewhat ghastly in the beginning, having failed to catch the attention of the littlest of tykes. They hadn’t seen the slightly frightening blockbuster of the big-screen, although they were certainly aware of the extremely popular Saturday morning cartoon, The Real Ghostbusters. To boost sales, Ralston re-introduced the cereal featuring both white and the new ghoulish-green marshmallows, representing the star of the cartoon, Slimer. Advertising execs apparently realized that Slimer was the one bringing home the bacon (and milk and juice and toast… all part of a complete breakfast.)
Instead of including the standard toy offering, Ghostbusters Cereal set itself apart from the competition by having the first-ever glow-in-the-dark-box. And some kids were duly impressed, running off to dark corners of the house and stuffing themselves into closets to see the box in all its glowing glory. Of course, others had just started growing out of the “everything must be neon and/or glow-in-the-dark” phase. They let out a hearty yawn, given the plethora of glow-in-the-dark 80s items on the market.
Once the 90s came around, the Ghostbusters had lost their luster. The TV series ended in 1991, and the cereal met its demise around the same time. Though we may not be able to munch on toasty day-glo colored oats with Slimer marshmallows like we once did, (unless the stale boxes on sale at eBay are somehow edible), the memories of its ghostly goodness have haunted a generation ever since.
