Captain Kangaroo also gets his fair share of the blame of making me a Cereal Killer because I sat entralled at his morning show, which as you would suspect, had a river of breakfast cereal advertising directed at young consumers like me. A never ending river of brand new and improved breakfast cereals.
It was the Captain that encouraged me to beg Mom to switch over to Sugar Crisp and Frosted Flakes instead of those bland regular Corn Flakes and Cherrios. The came Trix...Captain Crunch...Life...CoCo Puffs...and the sugar loaded, multi flavored and colored cereals kept piling up in the cabinets and on our table for years.
I hate to think of how many boxes I basically memorized with their exciting offers of little toys and trinkets for only $1.25 plus five box tops. Somehow those toys and trinkets that seemed so very special on the illustration... always seemed to fall short of my expectations as I eagerly tore open the shipping box (seems like many came from Reidsville, N.C. back then for some unknown reason) and my joy at the actual toy was nothing like what I had experienced in my anticipation.
Now that I'm older, heavier and maybe just a lil bit wiser than I was back then, even though I still read the boxes, it's usually the nutritional information that captures my attention. Besides they seldom put anything cool to send off for on the back of my intant oatmeal boxes.
Seems like someone in advertising would pick up on this growing potential market for former cereal killers. Maybe start putting some kind of mail-in offers directed toward us aging and spreading baby boomers. Fomer killers all.
Little blue pills would be a hit I'm sure with this market share. Or sleeping pills. Or possibly something to minimize unrestrained and unavoidable flatulence. Those little toy trains and matchbox cars just wouldn't interest me now as much as they did then. Maybe my killer instinct is finally fading away.
