TV Guidance

Jaime Weinman writes about all kinds of television and other kinds of popular culture. He does not write Gossip Girl episode reviews. Follow Jaime on Twitter: @weinmanj

Categories: TV Guidance

Why I Hate Those Kids From the Trix Commercials

by Jaime Weinman on Tuesday, October 27, 2009 4:45pm - 15 Comments

Okay, it’s come to my attention that I may need to explain what I mean when I say I hate those kids from the Trix commercials. Not to dwell on it too much (since this would bore those of you who already hate them too), here’s the quick explanation:

1) Every Trix commercial has the Rabbit trying to eat some Trix.

2) In every commercial, a bunch of kids take the cereal away from him and won’t let him eat it, because “Trix are for kids!”

3) The people who made the original commercials in the ’60s apparently thought we’d root for the kids, because they get to have something that’s all their own, and the commercials are selling the idea that Trix was a special sugary treat for kids only, not adults or talking rabbits.

4) But every kid who watched the commercials hated the kids for being so cruel to the rabbit.

Examples of this wanton cruelty, from the ’60s:

The ’70s:

And the ’80s, when they just laugh at his tears:

In the words of another classic commercial that screwed up our minds: “Any questions?”

Tags: Trix

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http://intensedebate.com/people/SeanStok SeanStok

As I child, I found Charlie the Tuna to be equally disturbing. Why was he suicidal?

http://intensedebate.com/people/madeyoulook madeyoulook

All that mercury.

Foreigner

I understood what you meant. I just found it odd that you had such a strong reaction to the obnoxious kids in a commercial. What about the obnoxious kids in the programs themselves?

Kids should not be on television, period. Where I grew up, the local television station chose not to air The Brady Bunch because the television station's owner's wife thought the kids were insufferable. With a few exceptions (the Partridge Family, Roseanne, Parker Lewis, Square Pegs, Degrassi and educational programming), kids have been a disaster for television.

Don't get me started on Saved by the Bell…

http://intensedebate.com/people/jaimeweinman Jaime Weinman

Ah, but most obnoxious kids must, due to the rules of TV storytelling, learn their lesson and do the right thing. Limited to 30-second commercials, the Trix kids get away with always doing evil.

In fact, one thing about cereal commercials is that they were a world where evil and lawlessness triumphed. The kids didn't get punished for stealing Lucky the Leprechaun's Lucky Charms, Barney Rubble repeatedly got away with stealing Fred's Fruity Pebbles, and really, everybody got away with breaking the law except the poor Cookie Crook. It's a jungle out there in Cereal World.

Foreigner

the Trix kids get away with always doing evil.

Just like real life.

http://solopiano2.wordpress.com solo piano

evil sux, and those trix kids will get what they deserve one of these days!

http://intensedebate.com/people/SamDavies SamDavies

It is a life lesson about the real world.
Life is cruel….

http://solopiano2.wordpress.com solo piano

life is cruel unless you eat TRIX, right?

http://twitter.com/chromesushi Chrome Sushi

I want to know why all cereal commercials generally revolved around theft.

http://intensedebate.com/people/madeyoulook madeyoulook

Was Wilford Brimley sticky-fingering when he dropped off the Quaker Oats? I guess I didn't catch that…
http://solopiano2.wordpress.com solo piano

good point. lol.

http://intensedebate.com/people/PeteTong PeteTong

Love the family guy spoof – Silly Rabbit Trix are for kids – You SHARE! ____Anyways, I'm a sucker and went out and bought The Plan. Let's hope it was worth spending the rest my allowance on.

http://intensedebate.com/people/PeteTong PeteTong

Ok, watched The Plan and it totally sucked. I don't understand why the graphics for the colonies were allowed to look so bad. I mean Picon looked like it was from a computer game circa 2002.

Alan

It strikes me that this is part of a much larger trend in commercials. Some relatively large percentage of commercials (I'm gonna say 40% here) seem to be based on the premise of "People who use our product are jerks. Please buy our product!"

I would just say that I do prefer the kids commercial where the kids are jerks to the kids commercials where the kids end up eating the spokesperson/animal/food product. Pretty much every Cheese Strings commercial has the Cheese Strings coming to life, singing and dancing, and end with the kids eating them.

And finally, on the flimsy pretense that we're talking about commercials, here's probably my favourite kid associated commercial of all time, courtesy of the Sprit campaign Thirst is Everything. Hey Jamie, do you have a favourite commercial ad campaign?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fA8ad71n94
Alan

Um, that should be "Sprite".