A Charmin' History of Lucky Charms Cereal

In the early 1960s, food scientists at General Mills were trying to come up with an idea for a new cereal. Among them was John Holahan, who decided to combine Cheerios with marshmallow circus peanuts. The result was surprisingly good. You might even say it was magically delicious. And it would go on to become one of the most popular cereals of all time. This is the story of Lucky Charms.
Sources:
“Women Change Ideas Except The Old Luck Charms,” Elizabeth Toomey, The Neosho Daily News, Feb 23, 1956
“Confection and Process for Producing the Same,” Patent, Alexander J. Doumak and James Doumak, National Dairy Products Corporation, USPTO, 1958
“Method of Making a Dehydrated Confection,” Patent, Frank P. Kania and Edward S. Olney, National Dairy Products Corporation, USPTO, 1967
“General Mills to Promote Its Nine Cereals as ‘Big G’ Line,” Harold Chucker, The Minneapolis Star, May 27, 1960
“Lots of Cereals, Sweet Mixes,” Des Moines Tribune, Feb 6, 1964
“Advertising Memo,” Minneapolis Sunday Tribune, Apr 26, 1964
“Business is Booming for Cereal Makers,” Woodrow Wirsig, The Courier-Journal, Sep 27, 1964
“Breakfast Checks,” Morton Mintz, The Courier-Journal, Jul 24, 1970
“Cereal Companies Answer the Blast,” UPI, The Hanford Sentinel, Jul 24, 1980
“Cereals Snap, Pop Crackle at Senate,” The Cincinnati Enquirer, Aug 5, 1970
“The Dispute Goes on Over Those Breakfast Cereals,” The New York Times, Aug 9, 1970
“Hearings before the Consumer Subcommittee of the Committee on Commerce United States Senate, Ninety-First Congress, Second Session on Dry Cereals,” Jul 23, Aug 4 and 5, 1970
“Nutritious Breakfast Vital to Health,” The Sun Chronicle, Dec 30, 1971
“Breakfast Food of Champions is a Financial Champ, Too,” Edward Schaefer, The Minneapolis Star, Jan 25, 1972
“Most Breakfast Cereals Found to be ‘High-Priced Junk Foods,” Harry Haigley, The Miami News, March 1, 1975
“Junk Food Can Be ‘Fun Food,’ Dietitian Says,” Gwen Flanders, St. Cloud Times, Apr 22, 1977
“St. Patrick’s Day,” Dale Parry, Palladium-Item, Mar 11, 1984
“Story Behind Food Nutrition Labels,” Thayer Wine, The Tennessean, Feb 19, 1995
“A Charmed Life - Lucky Charm’s Cereal,” Karen Wright, Discover, Aug 1999
“Causal CEO Sets Table for Growth,” Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal, Jan 7, 2001
“The Luck Charm of Steve Sanger,” BusinessWeek, Mar 26, 2001
“General Mills Goes Whole-Grain Only,” AP, The Gazette, Oct 01, 2004
“R.B. Choate Jr., Food Lobbyist, Dies at 84,” Douglas Martin, The New York Times, May 12, 2009
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“General Mills Says Bye to Dye in Cereals,” Mike Hughlett, Star Tribune, Jun 23, 2015
“Lucky Charms Cannot Find the Magic in Natural Ingredients - So it’s Going Full-On Sugar Bomb Instead,” Abha Bhattarai, The Washington Post, May 18, 2017
“Silly Rabbit! Original Trix with Artificial Colors is Back after Customers Revolt,” Annie Gasparro, The Wall Street Journal, Sep 21, 2017
“Lucky Charms Adds Unicorn Marshmallows,” Port Highland Sun, Feb 22, 2018
“A Spoonful of Sugar Helps the Sales Go Up: Cereal Makers Return to the Sweet Stuff,” Annie Gasparro, The Wall Street Journal, Apr 5, 2018
“Big Food hit pause on switching to natural colors. What will it take to make the shift?” Megan Poinski, Food Dive, Jun 3, 3021

[@MoonMonkeyMCM]

I loved the slide show B reel, complete with the click. Great stuff.

[@Johnmiller-gm9lm]

Thanks

[@behindherteeth]

Lucky Charms will always be popular! There’s nothing else quite like them. Healthy? No. Magically delicious? Yes!

[@toyabrown2617]

My favorite marshmallow shape is the blue moon!