Pebbles (cereal)

Fruity Pebbles and Cocoa Pebbles are brands of breakfast cereal introduced by Post Cereals in 1969, featuring characters from the animated series The Flintstones. Cocoa Pebbles contains chocolate-flavored crispy rice cereal bits, while Fruity Pebbles contains crispy rice cereal bits that come in a variety of fruit flavors.

Product history

The brand was named specifically after the character Pebbles Flintstone, which at the time of its naming, was the President of Post Cereal's favorite character due to her likeness to his own daughter. Unlike its sister cereal Cocoa Pebbles (which has remained essentially the same product, except for the addition of polydextrose in 2006), Fruity Pebbles has undergone many formula additions and variants such as "Fiesta Fruity Pebbles", "Half Sugar Fruity Pebbles", "Cinna-Crunch Pebbles" (1999-2000), "Dino Pebbles" (late 1980s- early 1990s), "Marshmallow Mania Pebbles" (2005), "Bronto Bright Pebbles", and "Bamm-Bamm Pebbles". The cereal started out with three flavors: Orange, cherry, and lemon. New flavors were added over time such as grape in 1980, lime in 1984, Berry Blue in 1994, Incrediberry Purple in 1995 and Bedrock Berry Pink in 2005. A berry cereal called Bamm-Bamm Berry Pebbles was released in 2007, although they are like Fruity Pebbles, they only feature berry flavors. The formula for both versions of Pebbles had a major addition in 2006: polydextrose became a key ingredient.

Dino Pebbles

The original Dino Pebbles was available from the mid-1980s to the early-1990s. Dino Pebbles consisted of vanilla-flavored cereal with marshmallows. It had the distinction of having the most marshmallows per box of any cereal. In 2005 Dino Pebbles was resurrected under the name Marshmallow Mania Pebbles. Marshmallow Mania Pebbles differed from Dino Pebbles only in that it had sprinkles added to the cereal. Marshmallow Mania Pebbles eventually was also discontinued. In early 2008 a new variety of Dino Pebbles called "Dino Smores Pebbles" was released. It is a cereal with graham cracker bones and cocoa nuggets, along with marshmallow boulders, all the ingredients of s'mores.

Television commercials

The classic television commercials for both Pebbles cereals have a recurring theme: Barney Rubble attempts to trick Fred Flintstone out of his cereal, or to simply steal it outright. Barney is often in disguise in these attempts, and sometimes, he pulls off his gag with some help from Dino. In protest of his breakfast being swiped, Fred yells, "Barney! My Pebbles!" and often gives chase. Other characters such as Wilma Flintstone and Pebbles Flintstone would make cameos as well. In one commercial, when Fred poses as Barney's old schoolteacher, a flashback sequence is seen of young Barney tricking young Fred out of his cereal with the characters drawn as they appeared in The Flintstones Kids. It was only during a Christmas Commercial when Fred actually forgives Barney (at the urging of Santa Claus) for stealing the Pebbles and agrees to share them.

As of 2008, these commercials now simply feature children eating the cereal and then transforming into Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm, with the latter then smashing the table (and shouting his catchphrase with an off voice). Fred and Barney now only appear as voice-overs in these commercials.

Fanclub

Fruity Pebbles has the unique distinction of having it's own fan club. It is headed by RD Reynolds. Recently Reynolds has been involved in a heated rivalry with the only other cereal fan club in the Boo Berry Fan Club headed by Blade Braxton.

External links

• Nutrition Facts for Fruity Pebbles Cereal
• Kraft Foods product listing