Freakies
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Freakies was a brand of sweetened breakfast cereal produced by Ralston and sold in the United States. The cereal was Ralston's first major venture into the presweetened RTE (Ready to Eat) cereal market. The marketing thrust of Freakies was initially led by marketing manager Jay Brown, with marketing manager Jack Forcelledo following Brown and taking the Freakies into additional test markets and eventually national rollout. Cocoa and Fruity Freakies, as well as, several additional presweetened cereal products were developed under Forcelledo's watch. The creative for Freakies was developed by Wells, Rich, Greene advertising agency of New York City. Jackie End was the lead creative and copywriter of the TV commercials as well as many of the back package panel storylines. The cereal entered the marketplace in 1972 and was taken off the shelves in 1976. A Cocoa version called ''Cocoa Freakies'' was available in 1973 and a fruit version titled ''Fruity Freakies'' was available in 1975 - 1976.
The Freakies were made up of seven creatures named Hamhose, Gargle, Cowmumble, Grumble, Goody Goody, Snorkeldorf and the leader Boss Moss. In the mythology of the Freakies, the seven went in search of the legendary Freakies Tree which grew the Freakies cereal. They found the Tree, realized the legend was true, and promptly took up residence in the Tree which then became the backdrop for all the TV spots and package back stories. In 1987, a new Freakies cereal was made, depicting the characters as aliens from another planet. Boss Moss and Grumble were still the same, but the other characters were replaced by new ones, named Hugger, Sweetie, Tooter and Hotdog.
Appearances in pop culture
The 1989 film ''The 'Burbs'' features a scene where Ray Peterson, portrayed by Tom Hanks, is on his couch eating from a box of Freakies. They also appear in the 2007 film Flakes, when Neal Downs, portrayed by Aaron Stanford, receives a box of Freakies for his small New Orleans eatery, which serves a wide variety of cold cereal.