While we’re waiting for the lab tests to come back…
I never understood the “Mikey likes it” commercial.
“New cereal. Sposta be good for you. I’m not gonna try it. You try it. let’s get Mikey (big smiles of logic) Yeah! He won’t eat it. He hates everything.”
So…how does that prove anything? If Mikey hates everything, him not liking Life reveals no new data. And if he doesn’t like it…what? “Mom, we’re not gonna east your new cereal. Mikey hates it.” “Shaddup and eat it, or you go hungry!”
JAQ, whose middle name is Mikey, Life cereal eater since 1970.
The cereal didn’t just spontaneously arrive in their kitchen. Mom bought it. One assumes she left it out for them for that long-ago day’s breakfast. But, they are afraid - they don’t want to try the cereal. Maybe they really want the Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs they used to eat, but mom says about the Life, “try it - you’ll like it” (she is also a fan of quoting commercials, like us.). So feeding to to Mikey accomplishes nothing. Yes they are kids. Still…
You may say I think to much about a commerical, but I’ve had 50 years. I spread my commercial contemplation out over time.
As an older brother and habitual sibling challenger, I identified with the ‘other kids’ in the commercial. But some kids will see more of themselves in the Mikey character. Either way, everyone’s happy in the end and let’s tell mom to buy some Life brand cereal right now!
So I was getting my daughter some Life cereal when I noticed that on the back of the box was an activity where you mad libs in some lyrics to a song. The prompt for the activity reads:
“We need a totally awesome song for the Battle of the Bands show.
Wanna help me with the winning one?
Let’s rock!
-Mikey”
Who knew that Mikey was still a Life Cereal mascot?
Actually, I think you’re onto something. Perhaps they think that if they don’t like it (and they are sure they won’t) mom will buy them new cereal, a kind they already know they like. But they don’t want to have to actually try the cereal themselves to report they don’t like it. So instead, they’re like “a oh, hey, Mikey! We’ll give him the cereal, he surely won’t like it, and then we can tell mom he hates it, and she’ll buy us the cereal we like!”
It was but a happy accident that Mikey actually liked the cereal.
