General Mills : Cereal prizes through the years

history

Jun 12, 2019 • By Kevin Hunt

General Mills has been surprising cereal lovers with fun toys and games right inside the box, or by mail, for nearly 90 years.

Our first on or in-the-box premium is believed to be Skippy cards - based on the popular comic strip of the time - featured on 12 different Wheaties packages in 1933.

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Wheaties also offered numerous cut-out masks on the box, starting in 1947. There were at least 60.

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Other prominent prize highlights from our past include Lone Ranger Comic books in 1954, on Cheerios.

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Several rings were offered in the 1940s and 1950s, by Kix, Wheaties and Cheerios - this one featured the Green Hornet.

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One of our most memorable items were the mini license plates available in Wheaties boxes in 1954. Our Consumer Relations team still receives phone calls, emails and letters about them.

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'Prizes and special offers have been a staple in cereal and other General Mills products from very early on in our history,' says Natasha Bruns, corporate archivist at General Mills. 'We often tried incorporating things that would be educational or inspire children to develop hobbies like coin and stamp collecting.'

More recently in our cereal prize history, we've offered Star Wars pens,'Droid viewers,'decals and spoons, and books from DC Comics.

And in 2014, we put Mega Bloks in the box. They were customizable, with a set of stickers featuring the beloved Hello Kitty and iconic Power Rangers and build-it-yourself jumps. They also worked with the Mega Bloks people already had at home. The promotion featured four cars.

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Currently, we're offering stick-on patches - tied to the upcoming movie, The Lion King - in specially marked boxes.

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Learn more about our history on  GeneralMills.com  or in our  History category  on this blog.

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Kevin Hunt manages the corporate content and channels at General Mills, based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He oversees corporate social media, the 'A Taste of General Mills' blog, GeneralMills.com and the company's intranet. He began his career at General Mills in 2010. More posts by this author