Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Retro Post's cereal ad including Krinkles - Transcendental Graphics/Getty Images Food companies have been using mascots to promote ...

Cereal prizes used to be a big deal. In the 1940s and 1950s, kids didn’t just eat breakfast; they studied the box, filled out mail-in forms, and waited weeks for something exciting to arrive.

Food companies have been using mascots to promote breakfast cereal for more than a century. Ever since Quaker Oats introduced its rather boring Quaker man with his old-fashioned hat and puffy collar ...