Lucky Charms, the World's Rainbowiest Cereal, Comes Out Big for Gay Pride Month

Sometimes the best thing a brand can do is lean into the conversation that’s already going on around it. And that’s exactly what Lucky Charms, a brand that some people have always seen as a little queer, is doing, in part to support LGBT Pride Month.

With it’s new #LuckyToBe campaign, the General Mills cereal is encouraging people to share what makes them unique via social media platforms. And it’s made GLAAD—an organization that works for LGBT equality—well, for lack of a better word, happy.

Check out the campaign video from McCann New York below.



Lucky Charms Does Giant Bong Hit, Unleashes Auto-Tune Leprechaun

What could be better than an Auto-Tune leprechaun singing about his magically delicious cereal? Nothing! This 15-second Lucky Charms ad, which mixes current commercial footage, vintage images and goofy-great vocal manipulation, will air during high-profile TV shows this week like the Billboard Music Awards and the season finales of American Idol and The Voice. Its inspiration came from major doses of hallucinogenic drugs and/or a St. Patrick's Day promotion for the General Mills brand that included a mashup music video that went viral with nearly 1 million views. There were many hot-shot creative hands on deck here (see the credits below), but all you really need to know is that the result is super groovy. Watch the full video for a trippy walk down memory lane.

CREDITS
—Ad
Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi
Production: Pat-Man Studios
Composer: Jeff Elmassian
—Video
YouTube's Machinima channel and Melodysheep, mashup maker

    

Lucky the Leprechaun to Waldo the Wizard: The Evolution of Lucky Charms

Leprechauns are creepy, whether they're starring in a horror movie or plastered on the front of a cereal box. There's no telling if that's why General Mills briefly tried another mascot, called Waldo the Wizard, for its Lucky Charms cereal. Anyway, the marketer got it really wrong with a skeevy-looking middle-aged man in a bow tie and bedazzled robe. Buy your kid's breakfast from this guy? No thanks, consumers in 1975 said. So, the spokes-elf returned, and went through a few style and fitness makeovers in the past several decades—an evolution captured by the nostalgia blog Do You Remember? With some subtle tweaks and twists, Lucky the Leprechaun has been hawking the sugary cereal for much of its nearly 50-year life. Trivia game: How many marshmallow pieces can you identify? And just in time for St. Patrick's Day, who can explain where the pot o' gold went? Wasn't it magically delicious and stereotypically perfect?