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Cookie Crisp is a breakfast cereal introduced in 1977 by Ralston Purina and attempts to recreate "the great taste of chocolate chip cookies and milk." It is currently manufactured by General Mills in the United States since Ralston Purina's spin-off of cereals in 1997 and Cereal Partners (under the Nestlé brand) in other countries.
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Past mascots
Cookie Jarvis
The first Cookie Crisp mascot, Jarvis (1977 - 1985), was a wizard in the Merlin mold, with a wand, long robe, pointy hat, and big white beard. Both the wand and the pointy hat were decorated with chocolate-covered chocolate chip cookies. During his administration as Cookie Crisp mascot, Cookie Jarvis actually presided over three versions of Cookie Crisp: Ralston's Chocolate Chip Cookie Crisp, Vanilla Wafer Cookie Crisp, and Oatmeal Cookie Crisp. In the commercials, with one wave of his wand, Cookie Jarvis magically turned cereal bowls into cookie jars, usually chanting rhyming incantations along with it.
Cookie Crook and Officer Crumb
Eventually, Cookie Jarvis was phased out in favor of a new mascot, the Cookie Crook (1981 – 1997). The Cookie Crook was an anti-hero mascot who often attempted to steal the Cookie Crisp. He has a comb mustache, and wears a red chef's hat with cookies all over it. He also wears a black mask that goes over his face and nose, and a purple shirt.
Along with the Cookie Crook came Officer Crumb (1982 – 1997). Officer Crumb (sometimes known simply as the Cookie Cop) is a police officer, who was always trying to thwart the attempts of the Cookie Crook from stealing the Cookie Crisp. He is dressed in a standard blue police uniform, has a big nose, with a brown, thick mustache underneath it, and a unibrow hanging over his eyes. He spoke in an Irish accent and often was a diminutive character. At first, he was portrayed as a bit of a dupe, always losing out to the Cookie Crook, but eventually it was decided that having a criminal constantly thwarting a police officer was sending the wrong message to kids. So for the majority of their tenure as mascots, Officer Crumb would consistently come out on top, preventing the Crook from stealing the cereal time and again. A typical ad would begin with the Cookie Crook attempting to steal the cereal from a live-action breakfast table (often he and Officer Crumb were portrayed as no larger than mice, so their pictures on the cereal bowl were "life size"). The Crook would have some new gadget or scheme to steal the cereal, but then the Officer would arrive and save the kid's cereal in the nick of time. Despite his heroics, Officer Crumb was a secondary character, with the ever-failing Cookie Crook as the main mascot for the cereal. Eventually, the format of the ads changed to full animation, with the duo portrayed as the size of normal humans, and a more slapstick approach (similar to Looney Tunes) was used.
Chip the Dog
In the early 90's, the Cookie Crook was given a sidekick in Chip the Dog, and he was a fan favorite. Chip would madly yodel the cereal's name ("Coo-oooooooooookie Crisp!") in each ad, before he and his master were inevitably foiled by Officer Crumb. Despite starting as a sidekick, Chip soon began getting larger parts in the ads, until finally, in 2007, he took over as the main mascot for the cereal, and the Cookie Crook and Officer Crumb were dropped altogether. In the new format of the ads, Chip was a friendly pooch (who no longer wore a mask) who would go around and offer Cookie Crisp to a group of kids. Typically an adult would interfere on the grounds that cookies are not breakfast food (including Officer Crumb in one of the earliest of these ads), but they would change their minds once Chip gave them a taste of his cereal.
Recent advertising campaign
In 2003, Chip was radically redesigned, gaining a change in both attitude and species. He is now Chip the Wolf, (originally known as a Howler), a slim gray wolf, in a red sweater and blue pants. His new design seems to have come with a change back to his criminal ways-the new ads generally depict him trying to steal Cookie Crisp from children, just like Cookie Crook, using various schemes but always coming up short. In this respect, he is much like cereal mascots such as the Trix rabbit or the children in the advertisements for Lucky Charms.
In 2006, a double chocolate flavored variety of Cookie Crisp was introduced, titled Double Chocolate Cookie Crisp.
In July 2009, Cookie Crisp Sprinkles were introduced. They are vanilla cookies with small sprinkles on them. The cereal is said to be gluten free.
In some foreign boxes of Cookie Crisp, the mascot is a panther, who's light grey in color and wears Chip's clothing and that resembles a mix between Bagheera and the Pink Panther. His team consist of him, The Trix Rabbit, Koko, a brown koala, Stars, an astronaut bear and Snow, a cool looking polar bear who also have their cereals.
In Summer 2009, Nestle released new packaging for the UK version of Cookie Crisp with sprinkles.
Cookie Crisp Introduced In Canada
In October 2009, Cookie Crisp was made available in Ontario, Canada after years of being banned by Health Canada. It was banned because it promoted cookies for breakfast, which was originally thought to be an unhealthy message to send to kids. Recently, it can be found in the Costco chain of stores across Canada as well.
Taglines
- You can't have cookies for breakfast, but you can have Cookie Crisp! (1977 - 1983)
- If you like cookies, you'll love Cookie Crisp! (1983 - 1990)
- Little cookies you can't resist. (1990 - 1996)
- No other cereal tastes like this. (1990 - 1996)
- It's like lots and lots of little chocolate chip cookies! (1996 - 1997)
- Doggone good cookies for breakfast! (1997 - 2000)
- The one with the big chocolate chip cookie taste. (1998 - 2002)
- Coooookie Crisp! Next time, it's mine! (2003 - 2007)
- Totally Chipalicious (2007 - Current)
Mostly served in
United States of America, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Canada, Germany & United Kingdom
Ralston Purina Controversy
In the late 1970s, Ralston Purina offered tours of its factories, revealing that Cookie Crisp was laid on the floor before packing. It is unknown if any other brand of Ralston Purina products also got put on the floor or if General Mills does it too. No official health violations reported.[citation needed]
Imitations
In 2008 Kellogg's introduced Keebler Cookie Crunch. This cereal has cookie pieces that represent Chips Deluxe and are strikingly similar to Cookie Crisp. It also includes round O shapes that represent Keebler's popular fudge stripe cookies.
External links
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