Holly Bash
Ms. Templeton
Writing II 1020
01 April 2015

A Bowl of Fun

Cereal box designs were made to call out to you and grab your attention. When you hear the word cereal , most people would think about the cereal mascot instead of the cereal itself. Since cereal is very popular  it would make sense that other companies would try to look like the super popular cereal brands. The pictures focused in this essay are side-by-side with the real cereal brands being on the left and the knockoffs being on the right side. Knockoff cereal boxes have lots of ways to sneak around copyright issues such as using a similar color scheme, changing the name  and changing the mascot.

Even if you had never seen Cocoa Pebbles before, you can tell right away that these cereal boxes look very similar. The overall color in it has a cocoa theme, so there is lots of brown colors. The cereal in both of the bowls almost look identical. Both of the mascots have spoons in their hands, and look happy to be eating the cereal. One major difference with these boxes is the color and font of the names. The Cocoa Pebbles box has a yellow and orange color and it looks like stone to go with the name "Pebbles." Whereas the Cocoa Nuggets has a fun font, but the color is just white. (Hurwitz)

The next image compares "Cocoa Puffs" and "Cocoa Crunchies." These two boxes share the same color schemes of the text,background, and almost the mascot. Both mascots seem to be looking down at the cereal, but one is holding a spoon and one has a hose. The font of the knock-off name shares the same color palate, but if you look closely at the other box, you can see that it has a swirly pattern in between the names. The knock-off one has flat colors. The "Cocoa Puffs" box has a big sign that says "America's #1 source of Whole Grain," whereas the other box makes no claims like the sort. (Hurwitz)

In the set of cereal boxes, it is clear that "Fruit Rings" wanted to look like " Froot Loops" , but not be them. The cereal looks the same, both even use the same colors for the cereal. The mascots are very different, it makes you wonder how they got a dragon from a parrot. Both mascots have a rainbow ring somewhere on their body. Once again, the name brand cereal has some sort of statement saying that it "loaded with lots of fiber." That just makes the cereals look more healthier. Usually, the knock-offs don't even bother making any statements about the nutritional facts. The different spellings of the word Fruit are not surprising, because "Froot Loops" spells it that way to stand out from other cereals in the first place. The background of the knock-off is red and white, the name brand is completely red. (Asinine)

This next knock-off takes some fun liberties. The names do not sound alike at all. Marshmallow Magic's mascot plays off the fact that it has the word magic in the name, so suitably, the mascot is a rabbit. The background of the name brand cereal is a solid red color, the knock-off brand has a purple background that slowly fades to red at the bottom. The marshmallows in both pictures are not alike. The Marshmallow Magic marshmallows have a very retro Lucky Charms look to them. The Lucky Charms marshmallows have very fun and whimsical looks to them. The Lucky Charms box also have their slogan on the front, " They're Magically Delicious!" Which might have been where the Marshmallow Magic creators got the idea for their name from.

The last set of cereal boxes both display vibrant colors. The font and color of the names both have flat, green colors. The mascots on each box are trying to get the cereal or steal the cereal. The Trix mascot is a rabbit, the Pranks mascot is a raccoon. It is clear right away that Pranks is trying to be Trix, from the name all the way to the cereal itself. The picture of the cereal is bright, but it is the background that makes everything pop so well. The background of all of the cereal boxes balance out all of the fun colors on the boxes.

Cereal boxes in general tend to have lots of warm colors. A major repetition  noticed was the fact that lots of cereals use different shades of red for the background. Most of the time the knock-offs would copy the real brand by stealing the color scheme. The best example of this stealing is the Cocoa Puffs and Cocoa Crunchies, both have a brown background with white text that is outlined in blue. (Hurwitz) With those boxes, it is very easy to see that Cocoa Crunchies were trying to give off the look of Cocoa Puffs, and it worked. The two boxes are very similar, except the name and mascot. Sometimes the knock-offs don't entirely rip off the name brand, they take some artistic liberties with their color designs. The Lucky Charms and Marshmallow Magic boxes both have red, but Marshmallow Magic's use of red is different. Marshmallow Magic has a dark purple background that slowly fades into to red. (Hurwitz) One binary opposite was that the knock-off boxes use a lot of bland looking text. The names of the cereals don't have shadows or anything that pops. Most of them are just white text on a warm background. Just because they are white does not mean that they don't stand out, it is likely to assume that using the white text is more cost effective to use.

That white text tells something important about the cereals, the name. It should be obvious that the knock-offs can not have the same name. The naming changing was the strand, half of the time the names only changed one word. The names tend to either be somewhat the same or completely different. Cocoa Nuggets, Cocoa Crunchies,and Fruit Rings all sound very close the name bands they are mimicking. Marshmallow Magic,and Pranks in a way kind of parody the name brands. The creator of the knock-offs could have wanted to go for a goofy approach or they could have tried to play it safe by only changing part of the name. The name was not the most important thing to change on the boxes.

When you think of cereal you either think how it tastes or the mascot. The mascot of the cereal is the most important thing to change. A huge anomaly was that all of the mascots of the knock-offs tended to have no relation to the mascot of the name brand.Froot Loops' mascot is Toucan Sam, his beak has small stripes on it. Fruit Rings' mascot does not even have a name, it is a dragon that also has the small rainbow stripes. (Asinine) One set of boxes goes over the top and the mascots have no similar connection at all. That set is the Cocoa Pebbles and Cocoa Nuggets. Cocoa Pebbles' mascot is Fred Flintstone, a popular cartoon character, whereas Cocoa Nuggets' mascot is a green monkey. (Hurtwitz) The mascots of the knock-offs are usually outlandish, but that is what makes people remember them.

People always question why knock-offs look so far from the originals. The knock-offs can't look exactly the same because of copy-right issues. Creators of the knock-offs have main idea in mind , but they make major changes that won't get them in trouble. Next time you go to a grocery store you should go to the cereal aisle and compare the name brands and the knock-offs, it's quite fun!

Works Cited

Asinine."Cocoa Puffs vs. Cocoa Crunchies."Photograph.NASIOC. 14 Feburay 2011.25 March 2015.

Asinine." Froot Loops vs. Fruit Rings."Photograph.NASIOC. 14 Feburay 2011. 25 March 2015.

Eliza Hurwitz."Cocoa Pebbles vs. Cocoa Nuggets."Photograph.Hello Giggles. 08 Feburay 2013.Web. 25 March 2015.

Eliza Hurwitz."Lucky Charms vs. Marshmallow Magic."Photograph.Hello Giggles.08 Feburay 2013. 25 March 2015.

Francesco Marciuliano."Trix vs. Pranks."Photograph.Smosh. 21 March 2014. 25 March 2015.