food

Post Goes Retro For National Cereal Day, Parodies Cheesy 'Greatest Hits' Spots

It’s National Cereal Day (had you forgotten?), and Post Consumer Brands is up to some good-natured tricks again.

Post and Minneapolis-based agency Public Works have produced a chuckle-inducing, 2:30 video (below) that’s a devastatingly on-target parody of 1980’s-era direct response TV spots for “greatest hits” collections. 

The “ad” — which purports to be selling “Breakfast’s Greatest Hits” (on “2 LPs, 2 Cassettes or 1 Compact Disc) — features intentionally poor production quality, and stars an obnoxiously wholesome, smiley couple in front of a fireplace. 

“Do you ever wish you could find all of your favorite breakfast hits in one place?,” asks the woman, breathlessly. “Now you can — over 40 breakfast hits by the original cereals, together in one collection!,” declares her partner. “It’s Breakfast’s Greatest Hits, from Post Cereals,” she enthuses. “Just listen…” he urges. 

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A string of faux, cereal-inspired song titles, accompanied by music snippets copying the styles and voices of real, blast-from-the-past bands and singers, then begins to scroll down the screen. 

A Michael McDonald sound-alike sings “Now I’m picking up the Alpha Bits of my heart,” backed by instrumentation uncannily like that used in Doobie Brothers-era hits (though the band is ostensibly called “Alpha Bits”). 

Other selections (“Honey Bunches”) parody “bubble gum” hits like “Sugar, Sugar,” disco (“Doin’ It Dyno-Rite,” by the Fruity Dyno Bites), David Bowie, The Cars, Talking Heads, Gordon Lightfoot, country stars…and (as the hosts point out) much more! 

Vocals were contributed by Minneapolis musician Aby Wolf, as well as members of the agency team. 

The kicker: an ending screenshot with an order phone number that declares “Call Now!,” but also has a smaller title reading “Not Available in Stores — Not Available AT ALL.” 

The video, posted today on Post’s Facebook and Instagram accounts and its cereal brands’ individual social channels, is a follow-up to a successful video made for last year’s National Cereal Day. 

That one, dubbed #cereALL Day, is a humorous rap video using Post and Malt-O-Meal flavors as lyrics, also from Public Works. It generated more than 2.9 million impressions, including some 595,000 video views and 3,000-plus shares — outperforming National Cereal Day efforts by General Mills and Kellogg’s combined on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, boasts the agency’s website.   

 

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