Produced by YWOW GAMES in 2020 and under licence from the Kellog Company, these six collectable jigsaw puzzles depict the classic Kellogg’s cereal designs of Cornflakes, Frosties, Coco Pops, Special K, Crunchy Nut and Rice Krispies. Each 50-piece jigsaw comes with a mini poster.
TVTA has been collecting these since the beginning of 2022, and is now pleased to have completed the set. Enjoy the images, as we tuck into a nice bowl of Frosties and declare… They’re Grrreat!
Let me take you back to a post I made in June 2018 concerning the discovery of promo photos from a 1951 Kellogg’s Cornflakes advertising campaign featuring my grandparents, and my mother and auntie when they were five-year old twins.
The promo photos:
(including digital repair versions, many thanks to For Tyeth)
The original post can be seen here but long story short: our family had never seen any of the adverts placed in newspapers or magazines from the time, despite many searches, and so much so that we began to view the event as a myth, even though we had some original pictures from the photo shoot.
That is, until now, and thanks to my super sleuth eldest cousin in the UK, we finally have proof that my family were indeed used in the campaign across not one, not two, but at least ten national and local newspapers across England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
To say I’m absolutely delighted to finally have scans of some of these adverts would be a huge understatement.
I’m still jumping for joy!
Here they are at last (click to enlarge) …
The Belfast Telegraph – 15 January. 1951.
Kellogg’s Cornflakes advert Waight family. Belfast Telegraph 15 Jan 1951.
The Coventry Evening Telegraph – Tuesday 23 January. 1951.
Kellogg’s Cornflakes advert Waight family. Coventry Evening Telegraph – Tuesday 23 January 1951.
1950s housewives and working husbands
I had to laugh at the outdated tone of the ads, with lines like: “My husband works harder on a good breakfast” and “Give a man Kellogg’s with his breakfast. My husband never misses his” – typical 1950s style statements if ever there was.
Of course, my nan never remained a cornflake-serving good housewife (and actually it was my grandad who did the cleaning and cooking once the girls had grown up). My nan went on to become an assistant nurse – the same job as I now do.
Here are some low res thumbnails of the other publications and their dates.
Thanks for looking! And remember… “A good breakfast should include Kellogg’s” 🙂
Feeling peckish? How about a nice soft drink to wash down your elevenses, twelveses and thirteenses? If the answer is yes, then get your sweet tooth sharpened as TVTA fires up the office scanner to present you with a sumptious and scrumptious selection of retro snack and drink adverts to tantalise your taste buds!
We have candy, biscuits, chocolate, Hostess Fruit Pies, fizzy pop, gum, cereals, and Wonder bread! Heck – we even have a selection of mushrooms – why not! Our intrepid office cat, Wooof, says that mushrooms are a veritable and versatile kitchen companion if ever there was. And Wooof should know, he has an A-Level in cookery!
Let’s get stuck in… yum!
The Wilton Yearbook of Cake Decorating. 1982. US.
Bread and alien visitors! Get Close Encounters of the Third Kind movie trading cards just for eating bread! But not just any bread… Wonder Bread! 1978. US.
More freebies! Weetabix yourself silly to collect tokens for Crayola crayons and a colouring-in poster, courtesy of the Weetabix Gang. 1988. UK.
Bonkers Fruit Candy bike bag offer. 1985. US.
The aliens are coming… and they need their thirst quenching! But only one drink will do… Quosh whole orange drink. 1988. UK.
Cadbury’s Playtime Pack. 1988. UK.
Make room for the mushrooms? Just don’t eat the one at the top right of our picture. 1978. France.
Tang breakfast Soccer Team offer. Join the Tang team and get free football and Pelé stuff. 1988. US.
TVTA trope time!
Hostess Cup Cakes, Fruit Pies and Twinkies. TVTA just can’t get enough of those delicious, creamy, fruity, crime-busting snacks!! Don’t believe us? Check out our tasty Hostess mega post here In the meantime, stuff yourself silly on these two fantastic Hostess Batman ads!
I want it all!
Finally, we leave you with a gallery of goodness featuring sweets, biscuits, cake, chocolate, soft drinks, cereals and gum…
That’s all vintage mates, Wooof says you can stop eating now otherwise you’ll make yourself sick! Thank you for getting snacky with us. Please dispose of your wrappers in the nearest recycling bin. This post has been brought to you by Wooof-Wonky-Wonder-Bar-Cat-Snack-a-jacks-In-a-hat, and 1,000 Radioactive Recipes For The Apocalypse by Hoi Ken Cook and Rosemary Basilcrush. This post is single-use packaging free, 100% biodegradable, and may sustain you in conjuction with an active lifestyle.
It was in Birmingham, UK, 1950, when my grandparents were approached by representatives of Kellogg’s to take part in an advertising campaign for Kellogg’s Cornflakes. The company was keen to feature identical twins for its newest advertising run in British newspapers and magazines. Diane (my mom) and Christine (my auntie) had somehow caught their attention.
One of the 1950 promotional photos taken by the Kellogg’s company for a British advertising campaign for Cornflakes. I had to ask my auntie who’s who as it was always so difficult to tell them apart. Mom is the girl sat on the arm of the chair on the right, and my auntie is on the left holding the book.
The twins were toddlers at the time when Kellogg’s made the approach. As well as photographs of the two of them at play they were also photographed with my grandparents at the family breakfast table. Kellogg’s also took photos of my grandfather ‘going to work on a good breakfast’ (he was a welder at the time after leaving the war as a Royal Marine deep-sea diver).
Whether or not all of the photos were used in publications is unknown. My grandparents passed away in 1994 and my mom in 2017. No magazines or newspapers containing images from the photo sessions have ever been found when going through their estates, but we did discover the two photographs that I’m sharing here today. My auntie, the only survivor from the session, says that the family were paid £80 for their work – the equivalent of well over £2,000 in today’s money according to the National Archives. She also has recollection of seeing an advert in one of the female periodicals of the time like Woman, Woman’s Own, Woman’s Realm.
The second of the two 1950 promotional photos taken by the Kellogg’s company for a British advertising campaign for Cornflakes. Again I had to ask my auntie which twin was which. From left to right is my auntie, standing next to her my grandmother, seated is my grandfather, and next to him is my mom. My auntie tells me that no milk was allowed to be poured over the Cornflakes as it would have made them too soggy and spoiled the photo effect. I love the big, round teapot, and the sugar bowl, and I’m guessing that’s a jar of marmalade next to all those rounds of toast.
It’s a joy for me to at last lay eyes on two of the photos from a story that had taken on somewhat mythical proportions over time in our family. It’s also a joy for me to publish them here at The Vintage Toy Advertiser – a website that has vintage advertising at its core. The joy will only be enhanced by discovering an actual advert one day in an original magazine. Alas, frequent research attempts over the years have turned up nothing, However, with the continued effort of individuals and organisations uploading photographic content to archives and social media sites, you never know, one day!
My mom and my auntie aren’t the only twins to have been courted by Kellogg’s. It seems the well-known breakfast brand has a fondness for featuring twins in advertising, even as recently as in 2017 when another set of Birmingham twins, in fact two sets of Birmingham twins were featured in Cornflakes television adverts.
I found these three ads online while researching for this post. The first two are cited as 1948, and the third as 1960s.
Finally we have some adverts turn up!
Thanks to my super sleuth eldest cousin, several adverts published in the UK and Northern Ireland in January 1951 have been discovered! Brilliant to see these at last, as well as the image of my Grandad ‘at work’ welding which my auntie told me about. Sadly, my aunt didn’t stick around long enough to see these print images, as she passed away in 2019.
The Belfast Telegraph 15 January. 1951.
kelloggs Cornflakes advert Waight family. Belfast Telegraph 15 Jan 1951.
To see the other images and for the full story on this find, go to my latest post here
*****
Image sources for the 3 Kellogg’s twins adverts: Magazines, ads & books store. Retro Reveries. The Advertising Archives.
Updated March 2021 with Kellogg’s newpaper advert of Waight family.
The Wilton Yearbook of Cake Decorating 1982 had been on TVTA’s ‘to get’ list for a few years …
Mainly because of this cake-tastic Star Wars ad …
Star Wars ESB cake pans, candles, molds and toppers. The Wilton Yearbook of Cake Decorating 1982. US.
And this …
Star Wars ESB cake toppers. The Wilton Yearbook of Cake Decorating 1982. US.
But the US baking publication also serves up some other interesting pop culture goodies …
Like these …
And these …
And these …
And these …
Then there’s this cheestastic and delightful happy family in the kitchen ad … hotdog! I think they’re making a happy lion cake …
And … You’ll be a baking star …
And finally, Wooof’s favourite, a most adorable big cat big cake cover … it’s the happy lion …
Right, we’re off to find our aprons and chef’s hats for a round of happy lion cake making in the TVTA kitchen. Until next time, you can have your cake magazine but don’t ever eat it, and remember kids … a lion is not just for Christmas but forever. Thank you for sweetly decorating with us 🙂
Heading straight to TVTA’s Hostess Twinkies, Fruit Pie and Cup Cakes collection are these four fab ads featuring feisty face-offs between Batman VS Catman, Hawkman VS Golden Raven, Green Lantern VS a giant ice boulder, and Green Arrow VS a broken tram.
US. Weird War Tales. 1980.
US. Weird War Tales. 1980.
US. Weird War Tales. 1980.
US. Weird War Tales. 1980.
Just got back from the supermarket with our ‘three-jar-only’ rations of Nutella, both eyes intact and no bones broken. Was a good trip today. Maybe tomorrow not so lucky.
French supermarkets these days, it’s a jungle out there…
The Nutella French supermarket brawls
Pif Gadget. 1977. France.
Nutella Poem
Nutella, Nigella, your nuts have a nuance enrobed in palm oil
Rush for nuts, aisles smeared in irate blood and nuts that are crushed
Underfoot, tut, tut, zut! Leap over yellow signs that say Sol Glissant
Nuts, Nigella, cook me up your brunch of nuts Nutella
Black dress, black hair, let’s split then call 18 pour les pompiers
Nuts, palm oil nuts, Nigella, Nutella, it’s a 24 hour gastronomic countdown to
cut price markdown meltdown supermarket aisle showdown smackdown
Downtown Intermarché, Lidl, Carrefour, Aldi, Super U, Super you
You got Nutella, 3 packs, and all your limbs intact, nuts, pots and pans
Casserole, nuts Nutella, Nigella palm oil, je suis la, j’ai faim, oui, mais calmez vous!
(love never ends) We’ll always be together, together in Nutella dreams
France. Pif Gadget. 1981.
France. Pif Gadget. 1976.
Italy. Topolino. 1978.
The Vintage Toy Advertiser 