40% Of All Lucky Charms Cereal Eaten By Adults

(Great Beyond)

Back in January, venerable sugary-cereal brand Lucky Charms launched a new ad campaign aimed at a novel demographic: adults. Adults? Don’t grown-ups eat cereals filled with wheat bran and nuts and dried fruit? Well… no.

Americans’ cereal choices are complicated, but nostalgia is a big part of it. Even before the new adult-centered campaigns, General Mills estimated that 40% of the marshmallow-laden breakfast food was eaten by adults. Six months later, they say that sales are up thanks to the campaign, and form a big part of a general sales increase for General Mills.

Here’s one of those new ads, where a woman encounters a presumably soggy bowl of cereal left out on her counter. Is it a half-eaten bowl left behind by a burglar in her home? Is it a trap that a mysterious leprechaun left out? The ad doesn’t explain, and the woman naively chows down anyway.

A four-year-old might eat random foods they find lying around, but an adult? For shame, lady. For magically delicious shame.

Here, for no particular reason, is