Celebrating National Raisin Bran Cereal Day

Yes, Virginia (O' Brien or Mayo), it's true. . . November 15 is National Raisin Bran Cereal Day.



It does not specify Kellogg's, Post or newfangled Trader Joe's Raisin Bran.



Alas, this scribe, unfortunately, likes cereals way too much for his own good.



It is likely that in this loony world we inhabit, when National Cereal Day was declared on March 7, a bunch of pushed-out-of-shape, outraged, discombobulated and inflamed devotees of Raisin Bran protested and demanded their own day.



The TV ad for Raisin Bran this blogger/cereal fan digs the most is from Post - and stars Maisie Raisin and Jake the Flake!



Once Madison Avenue got past the jingle-packed singing cereal commercial in the early days of TV, the realization that offering cool stuff in or on cereal boxes took hold. Take it from Tom Corbett, Space Ranger!



Better yet, miniature cartoon characters inside cereal boxes might be the best way to market Raisin Bran!



We sincerely hope at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog that no obsessed collectors bid 27 million bucks on eBay to win a cheap cardboard cut-out of Sniffles The Mouse from a 1956 cereal box.



I don't remember records inside cereal boxes, but this was another marketing gimmick that sold lots of cereal, in this case to junior high school kids.



Perhaps what led to a Post Raisin Bran with a free Bobby Sherman record inside was a cult of crazed pre-teens on an extended sugar high from devouring entire boxes of the crunchy cereal, as seen in the following commercial.



The Raisin Counters commercials made one wonder why Post even bothered to include actual cereal in the mix.



Kellogg's was the sponsor for a slew of Hanna-Barbera Saturday morning shows in the late 1950's and early 1960's and produced a gazillion commercials.



The Kellogg's Raisin Bran sun, at first voiced by the great Daws Butler, ended up the cereal's cheerful spokes-model through animated ads in the 1970's, 1980's and into the 1990's - and remains the smiling face of the product today.





This blogger forgets six month sections of his own life, but remembers Post Raisin Bran commercials from the enjoyable Linus The Lionhearted show.





Love those cool voice characterizations by Sheldon Leonard, Carl Reiner, Ruth Buzzi, Jesse White, Paul Frees and more.



Now, in 2019, should any snotty, snarky, hipper-then-thou individual say "ok, boomer" to me, the following is the only thing I can think of.



Bring on the crunchy cereal - and no fat free milk, please. Let's watch some TV, after I check my blood glucose levels!



Now pondering if a Raisin Brain Day ever happened. . .