The Sinister Reason Cereal Mascots Stare Down At Your Kids

by | Aug 23, 2014
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“Silly rabbit! Trix are for kids!” —Trix marketing slogan

In A Nutshell

The next time you take your kids shopping, beware. All those mascots on the front of cereal boxes are staring straight at your children. What do those anthropomorphized animals and irritating leprechauns want? Well, they want your kids’ attention, and if they make eye contact, you might just leave the store with a box of cereal you weren’t planning on buying.

The Whole Bushel

They might look like harmless cartoons, but Tony the Tiger and the Trix Rabbit are more powerful than you can possibly imagine. In 2011, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania found children were more likely to enjoy a particular brand of cereal if there were illustrated characters on the box. While that probably doesn’t come as a surprise, a more recent study suggests something far more sinister about Toucan Sam and the Rice Krispies elves. As it turns out, they’re staring at your kids.

Earlier this year, researchers from the Cornell Food and Brand Lab analyzed 86 cereal box mascots from 10 different stores. Out of all those happy, smiling characters, 57 of them were aimed at kids, and they were all looking down at an average angle of 9.6 degrees. Not only that, grocery stories usually place children’s cereal at a shelf height of 58 centimeters (23 in), and if a child were standing about a meter away from the box, he or she would be looking straight into the great, big eyes of Cap’n Crunch or Fred Flintstone.

So what’s the big deal? Who cares if the Honey Nut Cheerio Bee has shifty eyes? Well, those downcast peepers are hypnotizing your kids. In a related study, researchers asked 63 students to study a box of Trix cereal. Some of the subjects had a box where the rabbit looked down, but others were handed a box where the bunny stared straight ahead. After the experiment was over, researchers found people who made eye contact reported 16 percent more brand trust and 28 percent more connection with the fruity-flavored chunks of corn.

In other words, when mascots make eye contact, they establish feelings of trust, and when they look at your kids, they’re trying to win their hearts and minds. But hey mom and dad, don’t think you’re safe from Big Cereal just because you’re all grown up. Cornell researchers found adult mascots, like Michael Phelps on a Wheaties box, are usually sitting at a shelf height of 120 centimeters (48 in) and tend to look straight ahead . . . right at their grown-up victims. You know, they say eyes are a window to the soul. Well, in this case, they’re more like the doorway to your wallet.

Show Me The Proof

io9.com: New study reveals how Tony the Tiger is controlling children’s minds
LiveScience: Cereal Mascots Earn Sales with Eye Contact
The Globe and Mail: Don’t look now. Cereal mascots have their eyes on your kids
Image via Newsfix

  • Nathaniel A.

    This is making a mountain out of a molehill. “hypnotizing” and “sinister”? Really? It’s just clever advertising.

    • Hillyard

      I agree. The cereal companies found something that works and are using it. Makes sense, those companies are there to make money.

    • P5ychoRaz

      I dunno if I’d trust your opinion on this subject, no offense.
      [Lowers own glasses and eyes Nathaniel A.’s profile pic…]

      • Nathaniel A.

        Your joke was touched on in the article, the main reason people are more likely to buy those cereals is the fact that they have a face at all, regardless of whether it is making eye contact. It all stems from the fact that people will be more friendly towards those that they can relate to, and so they have more positive feelings towards them.

        For example, when you picture me in your head, do you picture Dwayne Johnson standing there, talking? The fact that the interaction you are picturing is with a human gives you more positive feelings towards me than if I had a, say, geometric-swirly thing as my user picture.

        • Clyde Barrow

          …or a maniacal killer like Clyde Barrow.

        • P5ychoRaz

          No, honestly, for some reason, I feel you’re white. And skinny.

          • P5ychoRaz

            But I, unwittingly, picture 95% of the people on the internet as bespectacled, pale, Caucasian, male, loners.

          • P5ychoRaz

            … damn I felt that was a lot of commas.

            ,

            ,

            … Just to be sure.

        • Not “regardless of whether it is making eye contact” – read the second-to-last paragraph: “In a related study, researchers asked 63 students to study a box of Trix cereal. Some of the subjects had a box where the rabbit looked down, but others were handed a box where the bunny stared straight ahead. After the experiment was over, researchers found people who made eye contact reported 16 percent more brand trust and 28 percent more connection with the fruity-flavored chunks of corn.”

          Avoidance may be for fear of judgement.

    • Joseph

      I don’t even think it works. I think it’s just the sugar.

  • Hillyard

    Meh. I suppose the eyes of Capt. Crunch follow the kids as the move too.

  • Check

    They are just normal people when they’re not on the job as mascots. They are just as flawed as the rest of us.

  • Next book I ever publish will have eyes on the cover.

    • Nomsheep

      If you put an eye on something people behave better and are much less likely to steal it.

  • P5ychoRaz

    When I was 5 or 6 I had my friend, Jaimie, over for a sleepover. When it came time for bed, he started crying until my mom came in. He told her my Tony the Tiger poster was scary. She took it down and I never saw it again. It was almost 25 years ago. I wonder where that poster is now?

  • Clyde Barrow

    Maybe I was a little different than the rest of the kids, but I often picked out a particular cereal because it had a ‘cool’ prize IN the box, as I was pretty much indifferent to what was ON the box.