Rant #2,230: Return To Forever

"Silly rabbit, Trix are for kids."

Anyone who has been around since the early 1950s knows that phrase.

It is engrained in our very beings, even if we weren't into General Mills' Trix cereal.

It was the refrain that was featured in the commercials for that cereal, warning the Trix rabbit--whose name I bet you didn't know, but it is actually "Tricks," although I do believe other names have been used over the years--that the Trix cereal, no matter what he does to get it, is for children.

Well, the children have now spoken, and Trix cereal is returning to its fruity shapes after a long period where the original shapes morphed into mere pellets.

Evidently, there was a campaign to return the cereal to the original shapes, including petititions signed by thousands of people, so General Mills, which manufactures the cereal in the U.S., decided a return back to those shapes was in order.

So, when you buy Trix in the coming months, you will see the classic shapes for "Raspberry Red," "Orangey Orange," "Lemony Lemon," and some newer ones, including those for Wildberry and Watermelon, and something called "Grapeity Purple."

Nope, it isn't the real classic Trix, but it will do, I guess.

Trix was one of the first cereals that took to be marketed on the then new medium--television--in 1954. It was also one of the first cereals to use a regular cartoon character--that pesky rabbit--to help market the cereal to kids.

And that rabbit has been trying to get Trix for the past 64 years, and he has never gotten it, because, again, "Trix are for kids."

And being for kids, the cereal is full of sugar, although I don't believe it is full of sugar as it once was.

And the coloration is attractive to kids too, and when TV went the color route in the mid-1960s, Trix was really able to fully show off what a colorful cereal it actually was, so it was perfect for color TV.

But back to Tricks, or whatever you want to call him ... the Trix rabbit became such an iconic commercial spokesman that the character appeared in other TV ads, including the "Got Milk?" campaign to boost milk consumption.

And in one of the all time melding of two popular cartoon characters, there was actually one Trix commercial where the all-time movie/TV rabbit icon--Bugs Bunny--helped the Trix rabbit try to get his Trix, but even in that commercial, the two rabbits continued to be unsuccessful in their quest.

It makes me wonder whether a real, actual rabbit would eat Trix if you gave the cereal to it.

But also, remember, the rules written up by the classic commercials say, "Trix are for kids," so you might get a slap on the hand if you tried to feed even a real rabbit this sugary breakfast treat.

So Trix is now going back to those iconic fruity shapes, I don't know if this change will make the cereal even more popular than it is--heck, there is even a Yoplait Trix yogurt--but I guess it will make all of us feel a tinge of nostalgia when we eat the cereal.

Yes, I am 61 but I guess this "new" Trix will make me feel like I am 11 again.