Child Of The 1980's

Unsurprisingly advertising the very same breakfast cereal they were named after, the Weetabix Gang was an immensely popular ad campaign that ran during the 1980’s. The first tv advert starring them aired in 1982, and they proved popular enough that they managed to remain the official Weetabix mascots until 1989.

The gang were of course Weetabix themselves, and were represented as a gang of skinheaded bovver boys, with white shirts, drainpipe jeans and braces. Not exactly the kind of image you would expect a major breakfast cereal manufacturer to want to be associated with perhaps, but it was a decision that worked very well indeed.

The gang comprised of five members. Dunk was the leader, Brains was (unsurprisingly) the intelligent Weetabix who of course wore glasses, and Crunch was the muscle. Bixie was the token female member of the group (who wore yellow bows in her “hair”) but most peoples favourite Weetabix was Brian, who came across as being a little bit simple, and did very little except shout “OK!” in a quavery kind of voice.

The animated adverts usually took the form of the Weetabix gang parading around a table set with breakfast things whilst singing a song telling you that they were against “titchy breakfasts” of “airy-fairy cereals” and “breakfasts fit for sparrows”. Instead, they recommended “If you know what’s good for you”, you should partake of “Neat Wheat Mate”, that is of course a Weetabix or two, every morning. Most of the song was voiced by Dunk, with Bixie and Brian most likely to chip in with a “Yeah” or “OK”, and was delivered in an almost threatening manner, keeping true to the stereotypical image of the average skinhead.

The gang were so popular that Weetabix even started the Weetabix Club, for kids to join to get hold of freebies such as comic strips, postcards and badges. If you’d like to see one of those old adverts again, then check out the clip below.

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This entry is filed under TV - Adverts and was posted on March 13th, 2008. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.