Fruity Pebbles

A box of Fruity Pebbles as of 2021.

Fruity Pebbles is part of the Pebbles brand of breakfast cereal manufactured by Post Consumer Brands, featuring characters from the TV series The Flintstones as spokestoons. It was first sold on the West Coast in 1969 as Pebbles, and went nationwide in October 1971 after strong consumer demand.

The cereal have crisp rice cereal bits with a variety of fruit flavors, and contain 9 grams of sugar per serving. Television commercials typically revolve around Barney trying to steal Fred's Fruity Pebbles, though that doesn't seem to be the case, as they have been replaced with other advertising campaigns since the 2010s.

History

Fruity Pebbles was a rebranding of a low market-share Post children's cereal brand called Sugar Rice Krinkles. In an attempt to reinvigorate Post's children's cereal business, their Product Group Manager of the time, Larry Weiss, licensed the Flintstones characters from Hanna-Barbera for use in a cereal product. In the years prior, character advertising had been used for promotions, but had never for a brand centering around a media character. The brand was marketed despite internal concern it would be a fad and not last more than a year. Fruity Pebbles was introduced on the West Coast in 1969, first under the name "Pebbles". After strong consumer demand led to national distribution in 1971, it was renamed to "Fruity Pebbles".

The original working names for Fruity Pebbles and Cocoa Pebbles were "Flint Chips" and "Rubble Stones", consistent with the appearance of the cereal and The Flintstones' Stone Age imagery. Frank Corey, Benton & Bowles' creative head for the Post Cereal business, suggested the alternative names "Cocoa Pebbles" and "Fruity Pebbles", which were adopted.

For the 50th anniversary of Pebbles in 2021, Post produced a limited edition Birthday Cake Pebbles cereal.

Fictionalized versions

In both live-action Flintstones movies, Fruity Pebbles has made a cameo; in The Flintstones, where they were sold at a market in Bedrock, while in the prequel, The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas, Betty O'Shale had a box of Fruity Pebbles in her apartment.

In the fourth and ninth issues of DC Comics' The Flintstones, the Rubbles and Flintstones had a box of Fruity Pebbles, respectively.

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  Stone Age Fruity Pebbles.

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  Stone Age Fruity Pebbles.

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  DC Comics' Fruity Pebbles.

Marketing and promotion

1970s

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1980s

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1990s

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2000s

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2010s

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In popular culture

• In 1989, Green Jellÿ released the song "Anarchy in Bedrock" in their album, Triple Live Möther Gööse at Budokan, which made a reference to Fruity Pebbles in its lyrics. The song was featured years later in the 1994 live-action film The Flintstones, and the accompanying album, The Flintstones: Songs from Bedrock.
• In the unaired pilot of Clerks, Fruity Pebbles is on the shelves of Rose Market.
• In the Moesha episode "Let's Talk About Sex," Dorian childishly asks who ate all the Fruity Pebbles after he said he was grown up enough to have sex.
• In the That 80s Show episode "Corey's Remix," Katie takes Fruity Pebbles out for breakfast, and then when Corey talks about his sad song, he perks up after seeing the box and proceeds to eat from it with his hand.
• In the movie Because of Winn-Dixie, Opal is at a supermarket selling Fruity Pebbles.
• In the Robot Chicken episode "Easter Basket," one sketch had a parody of the Fruity Pebbles commercials, where things take a dark turn when Barney steals Fred's cereal.
• In the film The Magic of Belle Isle (also known as Once More), Monte buys a box of Fruity Pebbles at the groceries.
• In the The Goldbergs episode "The Ring," Adam says that Dana, his crush, smells like Fruity Pebbles.
• In the film Vacation, the Griswolds have a box in their kitchen.
• In the Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life episode "Fall," Doose's Market is selling Fruity Pebbles. Notably, Rory and Dean have a reunion between boxes of Fruity Pebbles.
• In the film Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn), Harley Quinn and Cassie Cain pass through a cereal aisle containing Cocoa Pebbles and Fruity Pebbles.
• In the Curb Your Enthusiasm episode "The Mini Bar," Jeff suddenly has a box of Fruity Pebbles while he's at the supermarket with Larry.

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  Clerks unaired pilot.

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  That 80s Show.

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  Because of Winn-Dixie.

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  Robot Chicken.

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  The Magic of Belle Isle.

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  The Magic of Belle Isle.

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  Vacation.

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  Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life.

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  Birds of Prey.

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  Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Seinfeld

• In seasons 7 and 8, Fruity Pebbles appear several times in Jerry's kitchen:
  • "The Postponement"
  • "The Hot Tub"
  • "The Soup Nazi"
  • "The Secret Code"
  • "The Pool Guy"
  • "The Caddy"
  • "The Seven"
  • "The Cadillac" (part 1)
  • "The Shower Head"
  • "The Doll"
  • "The Friars Club:" Kramer opens the box.
  • "The Calzone:" Both Jerry and Newman have a box.
  • "The Bottle Deposit"
  • "The Wait Out"
  • "The Invitations"
  • "The Fountain"
  • "The Soul Mate"
  • "The Bizarro Jerry"
  • "The Little Kicks"
  • "The Package"
  • "The Fatigues"
  • "The Checks"
  • "The Chicken Roaster"
  • "The Abstinence"
  • "The Andrea Dora"
  • "The Little Jerry"
  • "The Comeback"
  • "The Money"
  • "The Van Buren Boys"
  • "The Susie"
  • "The Pothole"
  • "The English Patient"
  • "The Yada Yada"
  • "The Millenium"
  • "The Muffin Tops"

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  Kramer opens a box.

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  Fruity Pebbles in Newman's messy apartment.

See also

• Cocoa Pebbles