Another Ghostbusters Cereal Box

 

Yes boys and girls, it's another Ghostbusters cereal box!

I've previously written about one of the handful of boxes in my collection, to which I likened the cereal to the taste of a dead squirrel's rectum.

I think it's pretty accurate, really.

Seeing as it would be far to hard by the standards of any decade to market "Dead Squirrel Ass" cereal, Ralston-Purina had to slap something wildly popular on the box to sell it.

What better way to get children of the 80's hooked on dead squirrel ass than to include marshmallows and slap a Ghostbusters logo on it?

Overnight, Ralston-Purina had a hit on their hands. They knew just how to draw in us 80's kids. There was no way on Earth that we weren't going to beg our parents for it. Who cares if it tasted terrible? It had a freakin' Ghostbusters logo on it for heaven's sake.

In the 80's and 90's, childhood life was all about image, If you had something that somebody else didn't, and somebody deemed it "cool" you were the man, for a day at least.

If you were late to the party, and jumped on the bandwagon last minute (or it took forever for your parents to buy you the thing that made you cool) you were just trying to fit in.

Perhaps you avoided the things that were trendy and marched to your own drum.

No matter what, you weren't you without your favorite breakfast cereal.

in the 80's, breakfast cereals were made for anything and everything. Fly by night cartoons and long running staples of pop culture.

If you could dream it, you could eat it.

Naturally it made perfect sense for there to be a Ghostbusters cereal.

The particular box, while not of the usual Hologram variety, is amazing in it's own way.

Adorned with a giant no-ghost logo on the front, meant to catch the eye of screaming kindergartners everywhere, the cereal offered something more on the box.

While children of today's world only know "Cereal prizes" to be some long ago ancient myth, us 80's kids really had them. We had prizes galore, and some of the best giveaways known to man.

One of those giveaways allowed us normal everyday kids to "Be A Ghostbuster"

Screaming at your mom and dad to spend $1.75 to buy the cereal wasn't enough.

Now you had to be extra volatile and squeeze another $1.50 out of them.

Even by 1980's standards, $1.50 wasn't some huge amount of money that if spent would relegate you to eating peanut butter sandwiches for a week. And for the money being spent, you sure got a nice haul to show for it.

Before I get to what $1.50 got ya, I have to laugh at the picture on the back of the box.

These kids were so excited to get their Ghostbusters package in the mail, that they rushed into the bedroom, pajamas and all, turned off the light, and busted out flashlights to view the contents.

I think next month when I get my electric bill, Ill do the same thing.

All about reliving the excitement of a better time.

If you've made it this far, you were a spoiled little shit.

Not only did you get your parents to spend $1.75 on a box of dead squirrel anus flavored cereal (with marshmallows!) but you also convinced them that they loved you enough to send an additional $1.50 for a pile of crap you would likely lose within a week.

God, you had it good, didn't you?

For $1.50 plus the proof of purchase from the box, you would receive:

an 11x14" Ghostbusters poster

1 Glow-in-the-dark door sign

1 glow-in-the-dark light switch cover

2 sheets of Ghostbusters stickers

A Ghostbusters button

and an official Ghostbusters Membership Certificate

Man, Ralston-Purina was really making up for the poop flavored cereal weren't they?

I actually think I have a couple of the things that were given away on the box.

I'll have to do some digging in the Mr. Ghostbuster Headquarters, but when I find them, I'm going to lay them out on the bed and shine a flashlight on them.

Don't bother me.