I don’t know about you, but commercials can often take me back to my formative years as quickly as any song or movie can. That is why we will continue this semi-regular feature on ’80s commercials that I consider particularly memorable, noteworthy, or forgotten. Television commercials were much more influential back when we were forced to watch them without the luxury to fast-forward through and/or stream shows with limited or no interruptions. This issue will cover the Honeycomb cereal commercials from the mid ’70s through the ’80s.
Some of my most memorable commercials from the ’70s and ’80s are cereal commercials. We saw them all especially during Saturday morning cartoons. If you’re like me, I bet you can still sing along to all of the jingles for each cereal brand. How about this one? “Honeycomb’s big. Yeah, yeah, yeah…”
Honeycomb cereal was introduced in 1965 by Post. Honeycomb was not a cereal that I remember eating much myself as a kid, but I do seem to recall it could tear up the roof of your mouth due to the sheer size of each individual piece of cereal. Not like Cap’n Crunch by any means, but it could do some damage, too, if it wasn’t soaked in milk long enough. It didn’t have any marshmallows or bright colors, but somehow still came across as a kid’s cereal. What I remember more than the cereal itself are the commercials, especially the Honeycomb Hideout and that Honeycomb jingle: “Honeycomb’s big. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s not small. No, no, no. Honeycomb’s got… a big, big taste… a big, big crunch… for a big, big bite!”
The Honeycomb Hideout commercials started in the mid ’70s and ran through the ’80s. Most of these revolved around an intimidating and/or hostile visitor coming to the clubhouse, but being pacified and quickly won over by the size and taste of the cereal. While most cereals marketing to kids had cartoon mascots and animated commercials, Honeycomb was one of the few that had live-action commercials.
Here is a compilation of several from the ’70s including a very cool animated spot with The Incredible Hulk…
Here’s one from 1980…
In addition to the commercials, I remember Honeycomb cereal being one that gave away mini license plates in the boxes. Here is a spot from 1984 that promotes the mini license plates…
In the ’80s, (naturally) they added a robot to the hideout. Here’s one that I remember well, so it must have been shown extra frequently…
Here’s one from 1987…
Here’s one from 1988 featuring a Genie…
There were several more, but I think my all-time favorite has to be this one from 1989 which features none other than Andre the Giant…
There you go, another trip down memory lane in the form of TV commercials. Over the years of watching cartoons as a kid, I probably heard that Honeycomb cereal jingle countless times and it is surely ingrained deep into my mind. It is dripping with nostalgia for me and can transport me back to those days in an instant just hearing it. Honeycomb’s big. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s not small. No, no, no. This is consistent with several other cereal brands which I intend to cover in future editions of Retro Commercials.
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