The Untold Truth Of Frosted Flakes

Everyone knows Frosted Flakes. This long-standing staple on grocery store shelves has been a favorite for families for more than half a century. However, there's a lot more hiding behind those inconspicuous blue boxes than you might think (and, yeah, it's more than just some sugar-coated corn flakes). 

For example, did you know that there have been a number of different voices behind Tony the Tiger? His well-known "They're G-r-r-reat" hasn't always been the same (even though you might not be able to recall Tony ever sounding different). And were you aware that Kellogg's went so far in their character backstory for Tony as to give him an entire family and even an ethnicity? Not all of these historical tidbits are pleasant — Frosted Flakes have been at the center of some controversies, including lawsuits and social cries for changes to children's diets in the name of fighting obesity.

Here's everything you didn't know about Frosted Flakes.

Despite all that sugar, Frosted Flakes have always been pretty simple, and if you're looking to cut down on eating heavily-processed foods with a lot of unfamiliar, hard-to-pronounce ingredients, you'll be happy when you look at the Frosted Flakes ingredients list. The breakfast cereal only contains three primary ingredients: milled corn, sugar, and malt flavor. Complimenting that is a variety of vitamins and minerals, alongside a little bit of salt.

Even the manufacturing process for Frosted Flakes is simple. Frosted Flakes are, as you might've guessed, simply the frosted version of Kellogg's Corn Flakes, which, the brand reports, come together after harvested corn is cleaned, sifted, and rolled, before the resulting corn grits are turned into flakes (Kellogg's says that each kernel of harvested corn results in two to three individual Corn Flakes). The flakes are cooked, dried, and toasted, and that's it. You've got Corn Flakes. Add a little sugar frosting, and you've got Frosted Flakes.

It really shouldn't come as a surprise that Tony the Tiger was an international success. The same advertising firm that invented Tony the Tiger, Leo Burnett, is also credited with an array of food mascots that we all know and love. As Food Non-Fiction tells it, Leo Burnett employees Eugene Kokley and Martin Provensen drew and created Tony alongside the other mascots that Kellogg presented to the public on their new cereal boxes.

So what else did Leo Burnett come up with? Leo Burnett, named after the firm's founder, created the Marlboro Man of Marlboro cigarettes, the Pillsbury Doughboy, Toucan Sam, and the Jolly Green Giant, among others. According to the One Club Hall of Fame, Burnett is also credited with creating the Keebler Elves, Charlie the Tuna, and Morris the Cat. The firm has come up with many slogans too, such as "You're in good hands" for Allstate and "Fly the Friendly Skies" for United Airlines.

You could say that Tony the Tiger's voice is unmistakable and that you could spot it anywhere — but could you really? The most well-known voice of Tony the Tiger, Thurl Ravenscroft, pops up in quite a few other places that you might know. For example, Ravenscroft (who portrayed the voice of Tony the Tiger up until his death in 2005, Kellogg's notes) is also the voice behind the popular holiday song "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch." He also is credited with voiceover work in a range of popular children's animated movies, including "Pinocchio," "Cinderella," "Alice in Wonderland," "One Hundred and One Dalmatians," "The Sword in the Stone," "Mary Poppins," "The Aristocats," "The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh," "Aladdin," "A Goofy Movie," "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" and "The Brave Little Toaster."

While you probably thought of Tony the Tiger as being a part of your childhood, you probably didn't realize just how big of a part of your childhood Tony the Tiger (or rather, the voice behind Tony the Tiger) really was.

Few brands can say they've sent their product to the moon, but Kellogg's is among them. In 1969, Kellogg's sent Frosted Flakes and "fruit-flavored Corn Flakes cereal cubes" (developed by Whirlpool, oddly enough) to the moon on the Apollo 11 mission to feed astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins. They sent supposedly enough cereal to last the entire 11-day mission. Of course, Kellogg's used this as a marketing opportunity and included themed stickers in its cereal boxes as children's prizes as part of the lunar advertising campaign. The campaign encouraged kids to buy Frosted Flakes to claim one of 20 unique "man-in-space patches" which depicted the NASA Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo space missions.

Kellogg's also co-sponsored the television broadcast of the moon landing and rolled out another lunar-themed advertising campaign across its entire product line around the same time, with space-themed packaging and the introduction of the Apple Jacks "Crater Creatures."

Although the lawsuit ended, Tony the Tiger's woes didn't stop there. More recently, in 2016, the mascot received some somewhat unfortunate attention from the internet's furry community (which, for the uninitiated, is defined as a community "with an interest in anthropomorphized animals — that is, animals who have been given human characteristics, like an ability to talk or walk on their hind legs" according to Vox). 

When it came to Tony the Tiger that "interest" drifted over into carnal territory, with members of the community posting steamy fan art of Tony across the internet, prompting Kellogg's to block furry community members on social media, even those who'd never interacted with the Tony the Tiger social media pages (via The Guardian). That didn't go over well with the community, so there was quite a bit of outcry. Some even decided to oust Tony as their favorite furry food mascot, switching over to Chester Cheetah instead.

The Frosted Flakes line includes way more than just cereal now. Kellogg's Frosted Flakes products include not just the original Frosted Flakes, but also Chocolate Frosted Flakes, Honey Nut Frosted Flakes, Frosted Flakes with Marshmallows, Frosted Flakes with Cinnamon Basketballs (thanks to a partnership with Shaq), and a Frosted Flakes and Froot Loops mashup. 

Beyond the cereal, there are also cereal bars and one unique offering called Tiger Paws. What exactly is a Tiger Paw? It's basically a crunchy, sweet, puffed snack item (shaped like a tiger paw, of course) that's a little more snack-able than a handful of Frosted Flakes. Still, much like Frosted Flakes, these Tiger Paws are simple, only containing cornmeal, sugar, and wheat flour. They have 15 grams of sugar per serving, though, which isn't exactly ideal when the NHS recommends that children should not consume more than 19 grams of sugar per day if they're six years old or younger.

Australia was not alone in calling out Kellogg's sugary breakfast cereals. Some countries called for an outright ban on Tony the Tiger in an effort to reduce Frosted Flake's kid appeal. In 2018, a group of British members of parliament suggested that brands remove all cartoon characters from junk food marketing (via Yahoo News). Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver weighed in on the subject as well, saying that cartoons shouldn't be used to "peddle rubbish."

In 2020, Chile moved forward with its own cartoon marketing ban, coupling it with additional restrictions, including a ban on television ads for high-sugar foods between the hours of 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., as well as a ban on similar foods in schools (via Reasons to be Cheerful). Warning labels were also added to unhealthy items. The result was a decrease in the consumption of sugary drinks. Reportedly, Chilean children actively admonish their parents for buying sugary items, much like how children in the U.S. today might reprimand their parents for buying cigarettes.