Fruity Pebbles
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.[1] 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".[2]
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. They also have made all kinds of other weird variants such as ice cream, rice crispy treats, candy bars, pizza, and mac and cheese.
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.
Stone Age Fruity Pebbles.
Stone Age Fruity Pebbles.
DC Comics' Fruity Pebbles.
Marketing and promotion
1970s
1980s
1990s
2000s
2010s
Toys
Funko
- Main article: Funko
- Fred Flintstone with Fruity Pebbles (2017)
A Funko Pop! non-poseable super deformed vinyl figure of Fred holding a bowl of Fruity Pebbles cereal.
- Fruity Pebbles (2021)
A Pop! non-poseable super deformed vinyl figure of an anthropomorphic Fruity Pebbles cereal box with Fred and Barney on the front. It is also holding its own cereal bowl of Fruity Pebbles.
- Funko Pop! and Tee Fruity Pebbles Fred Flintstone with Spoon (2021)
A GameStop exclusive featuring a Pop! non-poseable super deformed vinyl figure of Fred holding a spoon and an XL t-shirt of Pop! Fred holding a bowl of Fruity Pebbles. The box also has the same cartoon design of Pop! Fred holding a bowl of Fruity Pebbles.
- Fred Flintstone with Spoon (2021)
The same as the GameStop exclusive, but just the Pop! non-poseable super deformed vinyl figure of Fred holding a spoon. The box itself has the Fruity Pebbles logo.
- Fruity Pebbles (2021)
A Plushies soft plush toy of an anthropomorphic Fruity Pebbles cereal box with Fred and Barney on the front.
- Pebbles Flintstone with Fruity Pebbles (2024)
A Funko Pop! non-poseable super deformed vinyl figure of Pebbles holding a bowl of Fruity Pebbles cereal.
In popular culture
- Main article: List of pop culture references to Flintstones
- In the movie Splash, Allen brings Madison a tray of different breakfasts, mentioning Fruity Pebbles, although it's not visible on the tray.
- 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 "Duff Daddy!" story of Simpsons Comics #55, there is a Pebbles cereal commercial homage, wherein Homer is lying in a hammock drinking Duff Beer, when the drunken Barney Gumble comes over dressed as Barney trying to trick Homer into giving him his beer, by saying Betty needs to borrow some, and calls him Fred. But Homer tells him to stop calling him Fred and to leave.
- 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 That 70s Show episode "When the Levee Breaks," Eric isn't sure about eating the Chicken Pinciotti Donna cooks, so she offers him the less sophisticated Fruity Pebbles instead.
- In the movie Because of Winn-Dixie, Opal is at a supermarket that is selling Fruity Pebbles.
- In the Robot Chicken episode "Easter Basket," there is a sketch called "Cereal Killer," in which there is a parody of the Fruity Pebbles commercials, where things take a dark turn when Barney steals Fred's cereal.
- In the Family Guy episode "Screams of Silence: The Story of Brenda Q," Jay Leno does his opening monologue in The Tonight Show, which includes a joke about him eating Fruity Pebbles, which were boulders when he was a kid.
- In the film The Magic of Belle Isle (also known as Once More), Monte buys a box of Fruity Pebbles at the grocery store.
- In the The Goldbergs episode "The Ring," Adam tells Pops that Dana, his crush, smells like Fruity Pebbles.
- In the Workaholics episode "Snackers," Bill eats from a box of Fruity Pebbles when his coworkers approach him. After she says she will shop for him, Bill tells Jillian to buy lots of Fruity Pebbles, as he thinks they are the "bomb-dot-com." Adam then swipes it to check for "ricin" before walking away, even after Bill says it was his lunch.
- 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 sells 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 Neighborhood episode "Welcome to the Property," Calvin says to Walter that any man would be lucky to have his organs inside him, which Walter misunderstands as a come on line, and tells him, "I ain't up for all this Fruity Pebbles stuff."
- In the Curb Your Enthusiasm episode "The Mini Bar," Jeff suddenly has a box of Fruity Pebbles at the supermarket with Larry.
- In the Netflix movie Unfrosted, in a scene set in an alternate 1963, Marjorie Post greets Edsel Kellogg III and wishes him luck at the Bowl and Spoon Awards, as does he but with a quip about her "fruity gravel" making a splash. However, her employee Rick is quick to correct him.
Clerks unaired pilot.
That 80s Show.
Because of Winn-Dixie.
Robot Chicken.
The Magic of Belle Isle.
The Magic of Belle Isle.
Workaholics.
Vacation.
Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life.
Birds of Prey.
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"
Kramer opens a box.
Fruity Pebbles in Newman's messy apartment.
See also
References
- ^ "Fruity Pebbles Nutrition | Post Foods". Archived from the original on February 12, 2014.
- ^ Sheehan, Jason (February 21, 2011). "Fruity Pebbles: Of Cavemen, Dinosaurs, Cartoons and the Birth of Branding". Seattle Weekly. Archived from the original on August 9, 2015. Retrieved July 6, 2023.
