Apple Jacks

Apple Jacks is a brand of cereal produced by Kellogg's and targeted mainly at children. The product is described by Kellogg's as a "crunchy, sweetened multi-grain cereal with apple and cinnamon." The brand seeks to promise kids a uniquely different, cinnamon-y tasting cereal. Originally, all Apple Jacks cereal pieces were orange and O-shaped, although they have become brighter and more orange colored over the decades. In the mid-1990s, O-shaped green pieces were introduced. On December 8, 2003, as part of a marketing promotion, the orange jacks remained O's but the green jacks were X's for a while, and in summer 2006 the green jacks were figure-8's (double O's) for a period of time. More recently, Apple Jacks has introduced New Apple Jacks 'Crashers' - a unique cereal piece that replicates an unfortunate accident from a mid '07 advertising execution.

Advertising

Apple Jacks in the early 1960s, with its original "Apple Head" character

The first Apple Jacks mascot in the early 1960s was "Apple Head", a figure made from cutting a face onto a real apple and applying a hat and pieces of cereal for eyes. In the late 1960s the box depicted an "Apple Car" with pieces of cereal for wheels. Around 1971, the official mascots became "The Apple Jacks Kids", a boy and girl simplistically-drawn as if by crayon. The commercials featured the children singing and tumbling around. Their reign lasted almost twenty years, making them the most well-known Apple Jacks mascots and most universally associated with the cereal in the public's memory. During this time, the Apple Jacks jingle became an integral part of the ad campaign: "A is for apple, J is for Jacks, Cinnamon-toasty Apple Jacks!" Since the late 1980s, the children haven't been printed on the box or used in the commercials. A television ad campaign in the 1990s featured rebellious children expressing their allegiance to Apple Jacks, apple flavor or not, proclaiming, "We eat what we like!" Around the same time, similar ad campaigns for Twix and Bubble Tape focused on kids' ability to make their own choices, regardless of whether or not these choices made sense to parents. This was in marked contrast to previous ad campaigns; for example, Kix cereal advertised itself as being "kid tested, mother approved." The shift toward marketing cereals directly at children signaled the growing recognition of children's influence on family purchases. As of 2005, the marketing mascots are a lucky Jamaican cinnamon stick named CinnaMon and an accident-prone apple named Bad Apple. Labeled as Apple Jacks Adventures in print advertising, the commercials starring these rivals focus on CinnaMon upstaging Bad Apple by reaching a bowl of the cereal first, in spite of the apple's Wile E. Coyote-esque attempts to stop him. Despite his being the so-called villain of these commercials, Bad Apple is more sympathetic among viewers. However, beginning in 2007, both Apple and Cinnamon returned to the commercials in an altered physical state where both made it to the bowl simultaneously. In the most recent commercial, they are now unstuck, but they both still make it to the bowl. Originally, Apple and Cinnamon were supposed to leave the commercials in November 2007 and the Apple Jacks commercials with the kids pledging their alleigance to Apple Jacks would come back in 2008, but home viewers liked Apple and Cinnamon so much, this goal was cancelled.

Taglines

• A bowl a day keeps the bullies away. (1960s-late 1970s)
• Apple Jacks will not be sold to bullies (1960s-late 1970s)
• A is for apple, J is for Jacks. Cinnamon toasty Apple Jacks! (1980 - 1991)
• We eat what we like. (1992 - 2004)
• Apple Jacks. Where the sweet taste of CinnaMon 'Is the winner-mon'. (2005-2006)
• Apple Jacks. Cinnamon, with Apple, is the winna-mon' (2007 -present)

1980s jingle

A is for Apple, J is for Jacks. Cinnamon toasty Apple Jacks! You need a complete breakfast, that's a fact. Start it off with Apple Jacks. Apple Jacks! Apple Jacks! Ten vitamins and minerals-that's what it packs. Apple-tasty, crunchy, too! Kellogg's Apple Jacks!

Ingredients

Sugar, corn flour, wheat flour, oat flour, high fructose corn syrup, salt, milled corn, apple juice concentrate, dried apples, cinnamon, modified corn starch, sodium ascorbate and ascorbic acid (vitamin C), calcium phosphate, yellow #6, niacinamide, reduced iron, zinc oxide, pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6), baking soda, riboflavin (vitamin B₂), thiamin hydrochloride (vitamin B1), red #40, turmeric color, vitamin A palmitate, BHT (preservative), blue #1, folic acid, vitamin B₁₂ and vitamin D. Apple Jacks are classified as being Kosher.