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Because Why? The Lucky Charms leprechaun

Today’s Because Why? is lifted straight from Topher’s Castle, because it’s late on Saint Patik’s Day ans wee can barley se the keybord:

Lucky was born in 1964. Lucky’s full name is L.C. Leprechaun, and he touts his cereal as being “Magically Delicious.” Lucky the Leprechaun magically changes ordinary, shapeless white marshmallows into shapes with bright colors. Originally he put the pink hearts, yellow moons, orange stars, and green clovers into Lucky Charms cereal. In 1975 he added blue diamonds. Purple horseshoes arrived in 1984. Red balloons were added in 1989.

In 1991 the star-in-balloon replaced both the red balloon and the orange star. A blue, yellow and pink rainbow was added in 1992. The yellow and orange Pot of Gold replaced the yellow moon in 1994. New brighter colors were introduced in 1995 along with the return of the moon, only now it is blue! And the star was changed from a 6-point to 5-point shape. A dark green clover in a light green hat replaced the green clover in 1996.

The primary marshmallow shapes, as of January 1999, became: red balloons, blue moons, pink hearts, multi-colored rainbows, yellow and white shooting stars, Lucky’s green hat with a green clover, orange and yellow pot of gold, and purple horseshoes.

As the story goes, a predatory whale swirled the colors on the marshmallows in 1986, and was subsequently “punished” by being turned into a rainbow-colored whale marshmallow for a limited time. Green pine trees were featured as an Earth Day promotion, and an annual Christmas version of Lucky Charms includes festive holiday marshmallows. Olympic “Marbits” (1996) and “Twisted” (1997) two-color shapes: Pot of Gold, Moon, Balloon, Horseshoe, and Heart have been boxed.

In early 1999, General Mills celebrated an “Around the World Event” with globally famous marshmallow shapes. These are: green and yellow torch, gold pyramid, blue Eiffel Tower, orange Golden Gate Bridge, purple Liberty Bell, pink and white Leaning Tower of Pisa, red and white Big Ben clock, and green and white Alps.

Later in 1999, they went back to their previous shapes except they modified the blue moons by giving them a yellow mouth and called them “Man in the Moon”. This promotion featured Lucky wearing a green space suit with a bubble helmet.

Come 2003, the primary marshmallow shapes were: pink hearts, orange stars, green clovers-in-hats, blue moons, purple horseshoes, red balloons, orange and yellow pots of gold, and 3-color rainbows. Bigger marshmallows followed.

Lucky Charms was the first cereal to include marshmallow pieces (technically called “marbits”). Marbits were invented by John Holahan in 1963.

Waldo the Wizard:General Mills attempted to replace L. C. Leprechaun in the mid-1970’s. Waldo the Wizard, a man in a green wizard’s cap and gown (and black sneakers on his feet), appeared on boxes in 1975. Waldo was created by Alan Snedeker, and designed by Phil Mendez. It was a test to find a replacement for the leprechaun. Officially, Waldo proved to be less popular than “Lucky” and magically disappeared from boxes one year later.

An inside source tells us, “In fact, Waldo the Wizard actually scored far better than Lucky the Leprechaun in focus group tests. The entire project started because kids (and therefore the client) got tired of Lucky. Despite Waldo’s success, which I was told was considerable; the client got cold feet.”

“Not only did Waldo beat Lucky in focus groups,” confirms another source, “it was test marketed in New England with great success”.

“They [General Mills] worried about losing the “equity” they had in Lucky, though at the time it couldn’t have been much if they initiated a new character search, produced and aired commercials, rather than just running storyboards past focus groups as a disaster check.”

Now that you have a craving for a delicious bowl of marbits, get thee to a pub!

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