Friends, I talked a bit about this with my article on the Hostess Twinkie and Fruit Pie mascots – but it is true that I do more than my fair share of thinking about the various characters that act as spokesman for food products. For example, were you aware that the very first mascot for Kellogg’s Apple Jacks showed up in the mid to late ’60s – and he was known as the Apple Guy? In fact the character is made up of an apple, wearing pants, gloves, and even a hat and bow tie. Not only could he sing and dance but as the fruit produce spokesman for Apple Jacks cereal – he could also deny the sale of the cereal to bullies!
While I am not 100% positive on this I believe the animation for these animated commercials were handled by the DePatie-Freleng animation studio – the same folks behind those great Pink Panther openings and theatrical shorts. The comments section for this particular ad state that is was Paul Frees (The Haunted Mansion, The Hobbit) who voiced the Apple Guy – considering the iconic actor’s vast amount of voice work I have no reason to doubt it. In addition just like with this second television commercial for Apple Jacks cereal – one of the bullies is most definitely voiced by the legendary Mel Blanc.
As I understand it, the Apple Guy acted as the mascot for Apple Jacks until 1971 – when he was replaced by The Apple Jacks Kids – a boy and girl who looked like they had been doodled by a child. They would appear as mascots in commercials and even show up on the boxes of Apple Jacks cereal until 1992 – it would be 12 years later after focusing on real children – when two new mascots would show up. These were a cinnamon stick known as CinnaMon and an apple called Bad Apple – although to my knowledge they have yet to deny sales to bullies.
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