Celebrate the General Mills Big G Cereal Retro Box Promotion! Retro Prize Pack, Target Gift Card and Atari Game Console Giveaway!

I think that we all remember as a kid seeing the creative commercials for our favorite cereals and if we were lucky, our parents would by them. I still feel deprived as a child because I could never get my mom to get me Cookie Crisp. I loved those commercials! What could beat a bowl of cookies for breakfast?

I think that we all begged our parents at one time or another to purchase cereal merely to get a chance at what treasure lied deep within the box. I remember that after pleading with my parents for the cereal that was offering the coolest toy, the toy that I simply had to have, they would finally give in to my demands and bring it home for my brother and I to enjoy. Everyday we feverishly ate bowl after bowl trying to get to the prize at the bottom of box. Only if my mom wasn't looking would we dare to stick our hands in the box and sift through the cereal hoping to get our hands on that sought after toy. I remember on more than one occasion fighting with my older brother over the toy in the box. It happened so often in fact that my mom had to put a rule in place that we were not to dig our hands through and find the prize, it had to be poured into our cereal bowl. The bowl that it landed in would be the one who got the prize. My brother is five years older than me so its not hard to imagine how he almost always ended up with the prize.

Cereal is one of those staples that no kid can live without - mine included. My oldest son loves to try out new cereals all the time. Some of his favorites include the The Big G Cereals, like Trix, Cheerios and Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Honey Nut Cheerios and Lucky Charms were two of my favorites growing up. I mean who could resist that adorable bee and that tricky little leprechaun?

General Mills has decided to bring back the original retro boxes for the five Big G Cereals: Honey Nut Cheerios, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Lucky Charms, Cheerios and Trix. Target will be the only store where you will be able find these special limited edition boxes, from February 14th - March 7th. The retro boxes will certainly flash you back to yesteryear when you pass by as you walk down the cereal aisle. I think that its hard for all of us not to get a little nostalgic as we walk the cereal aisle with our kids - now we have the chance share with them our favorite cereal box memories and the things that looked cool to us when we were kids.

Check out the retro boxes as compared to what we see on shelves today!

The retro Lucky Charms and Cheerios boxes are both circa 1965. The sixties are known for as a time of change for education, values and lifestyle due to the emerging generation.

Pop Culture

• One of most popular films "Sound of Music" released
• The Grateful Dead with Lead guitarist Jerry Garcia play their first concert, in San Francisco
• “The Dating Game" began on daytime TV in 1965
• In 1965, "Honey West" debuted

Politics/News

• Average Income per year $6,450.00
• Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. leads civil rights march in Alabama from Selma to Montgomery
• The Voting Rights Act, guaranteeing African Americans the right to vote becomes law
• In St. Louis, Missouri, the 630-foot-tall parabolic steel Gateway Arch is completed

Popular Fads/Products etc

• James Bond Aston Martin Car is the big seller and will be the first ever Toy of the Year
• Sony introduces its Betamax video recorder
• Popular toys for boys GI Joe & slot cars; popular toys for girls Barbie Dolls
• Skateboards rapidly grow in popularity, especially in CA
• Target gearing up to open its first stores outside of MN. First one opened 1966 in Denver, CO

Check out this Lucky Charms television ad from the sixtes!









The original Trix box emerged in 1967. That crazy rabbit always trying to get his paws on some delicious fruity Trix - nowadays everyone knows that Trix are for kids.


Pop Culture

• First Rolling Stone magazine is published
• Evel Knievel jumps his motorcycle over 16 cars lined up in a row
• The Beatles release Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, one of rocks most acclaimed albums
• Elvis Presley marries Priscilla
  

Politics/News

• Average income per year $7300
• Gas per gallon is 33 cents
• Thurgood Marshall becomes the first black justice on the Supreme Court
• Muhammed Ali is stripped of his heavyweight title for refusing induction into the US Army

Popular Fads/Products etc

• Spirograph is toy of the year
• Etch-a-Sketch
• Johnny Astro with astronaut
• Lego becomes the first to launch pocket money packs
• The Heinz line was created in a pub in 1967
• After a decade of growth, Dayton's transforms itself from regional department store to a national retailer. The company goes public Sept 6, 1967. The corporation has five autonomous divisions, among them, Target stores.
  

The Cinnamon Toast box came out in 1985. I was a child of the eighties, in 1985 I was five years old and in kindergarten. I had many things to look forward to like the the introduction of Mario Brothers, my all time favorite game, and my first Cabbage Patch Kid and then the aforementioned Garbage Pail Kid trading cards. Of course I thought that the Delorian was the coolest car ever!



This commercial from 1985 is meant to appeal to the mom - check out her perm and huge glasses! I think I had a few friends with moms that looked like that.


Pop Culture

• January 28 - In Hollywood, California, the charity single "We Are the World" is recorded by USA for Africa. The American act consists of high profile performers including Michael Jackson, Lionel Ritchie, Tina Turner, Cyndi Lauper and Diana Ross.
• July 3 - Back to the Future opens in American theatres and ends up being the highest grossing film of 1985 in the US
• Madonna launches her first road show, "The Virgin Tour"
• Record of the Year: "What's Love Got to Do With It," Tina Turner
• Album of the Year: Can't Slow Down, Lionel Ritchie (Motown)

Politics/News

• World Population: 4,830,979,000
• Median Household Income (current dollars): $23, 618
• Ongoing: The Cold War
• The year 1985 was declared International Youth Year by the United Nations

Popular Fads/Products etc

• Coca-Cola attempts to change its 99-year-old formula in an effort to attract younger drinkers. "New" Coke is poorly received, and the company soon reintroduces the original, "Classic" beverage
• Super Mario Brothers was introduced
• Star Wars was the most popular toys for boys
  

This retro box cover is from 1989, who could resist that cute little bee? And that song, "Its a honey of an O with Honey Nut Cheerios!" That jingle would stay in your head all day long! 1989 was one of my favorite years, I learned all about Bart Simpson, "What the hell man?" shirts were banned from my school and who could forget about Batman?

Pop Culture

• The first episode of the Simpsons are shown
• The first Batman movie was shown
• Lethal Weapon 2 came out
• The Cosby Show was the most popular show on television

Politics/News

• George Bush Sr. becomes President of the United States
• Average income per year: $27,450
• One gallon of gas is 97 cents

Popular Fads/Products etc

• Nintendo begins selling the Game Boy in Japan
• First release of Microsoft Office
• The Disco Flower was a fad in 1989 - you remember, that dancing plastic flower in a pot that we were so enamored with when it danced to any music within earshot
  
• Barbie turned 30 years old
  

In celebration of the promotional release of the retro cereal boxes, that can only be found in Target stores during Feb 14 - Mar 7, General Mills cereal and Target are offering FIVE Pretty Pink Momma readers a fabulous prize package.

The deadline to enter to win a prize package is February 19th at 10 am PST. All entries will still be eligible to win the Atari Flashback 2 (see below).


UPDATE: Congratulations to Karen, Timbo, Tamara B, Cat@3kidsnus, and bayctygrl!

Each of them has won a prize package. All entries are still in the running for the Atari Flashback 2!


Each Prize Package includes:

1 sample each the limited edition boxes of General Mills Big G cereal that include Cheerios, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Honey Nut Cheerios, Trix and Lucky Charms

1 Retro-designed T-shirt

1 $10 Target Gift Card



Also in honor of the retro promotion, Atari is offering one Pretty Pink Momma reader an Atari Flashback 2 Game Console!

The deadline to enter to win the Atari Game Console is March 7th, 2010, midnight PST.
You can also try to win one instantly by visiting RetroGameGiveaway.com

Fun Facts From Atari Then and Now

Atari Then (70s and 80s)

·Pong was the first arcade video game with widespread success.

·About 10 million people owned and used Atari VCS consoles in 1982.

·Asteroids was a hit in the United States and became Atari's best selling game of all time.

·Asteroids was so popular that video arcade owners sometimes had to install larger boxes to hold the amount of quarters that were spent by players.

·Atari sold over thirty million of the Atari 2600 consoles

·In 1981 Atari ruled about 75% of the home-video-game market.

Atari Now

·The all new Atari.com launched in November 2009.

·You can buy exclusive Atari games and merchandise such as awesome retro T-shirts on Atari.com.

·You can play eight original Atari classic arcade games in their original form (including favorites as Asteroids, Battlezone, Gravitar and Lunar Lander) on Atari.com. More are coming!

·2010 is the 30^th anniversary for Atari classic games including Centipede, Missile Command and Tempest.

·2010 is Atari’s 38^th anniversary.

·New Atari games include Star Trek Online, Champions Online, Project Runway: The Video Game, Backyard Sports Sandlot Sluggers, Puzzler World, and Ghostbusters: The Video Game.

How to Enter for both the Prize Package and the Atari Game Console: Comment on this post and share with me your favorite memory of a cereal box toy or game or share with me your favorite cereal commercial that you remember from when you were a kid. Both giveaways are open to US Only.

The Atari Flashback 2 Winner has been chosen!

Congratulations to Nicole!

*All winners must claim their prize within 24 hours or a new winner will be chosen*

Remember - Prize Package deadline to enter is 10 AM PST on Feb 19th, 2010 and the Atari Flashback 2 deadline to enter is midnight PST on March 7th, 2010.

Get Extra Entries!!! - leave a comment for each extra entry

- Answer any of these retro pop culture trivia questions and add two extra entries (two comments) for each trivia question that you answer.

1. Who was the President of the United States in 1965?
2. Which album and movie did the Beatles release in 1965?
3. In what year was the first Super Bowl played?
4. What two teams played in the first Super Bowl?
5. Who was Miss America in 1985?
6. In 1985 which US President takes oath for a second term as 40th President?
7. What was the most popular toy for girls in 1985?
8. Which movie told us in 1989 that men and women could not be platonic friends?
9. In 1989 following the Malta Conference, the Cold War ends between the East and West, which infamous Wall comes down as a result?

- There are five polls shown above, one for each box of cereal. Get one extra entry (one comment) for each poll that you vote on. In each comment indicate which box of cereal you voted for and what your answer was.

- Follow Pretty Pink Momma on Twitter - two extra entries (two comments)

- Tweet about the Prize Package Giveaway - two extra entries per tweet - max of 20 extra entries for this tweet per day. Leave the tweet url in your comment. Please put this in your tweet:
PLS RT General Mills Prize Package #giveaway - #win 5 retro cereal boxes, a $10 #Target Gift card, retro tee -ends 2/19 http://is.gd/8q5mq

- Tweet about the Atari Flashback 2 Giveaway - two extra entries per tweet - max of 20 extra entries for this tweet per day. Leave the tweet url in your comment. Please put this in your tweet:

PLS RT Enter to #win an #Atari Flashback 2 #Game Console! #Giveaway ends 3/7 #videogames #gamer http://is.gd/8q5mq


- Get SIX Extra entries if you Subscribe Via Email to Pretty Pink Momma posts, leave six comments - you must activate your email subscription for these entries to count.

- Get one extra entry (one comment) for blogging about this giveaway

- Get FIVE extra entries for if you Stumble this post (five comments)

- One extra entry for posting about this giveaway or sharing this post on any other social networking site - just be sure to let me know which one in your comment and provide a link to it. Add one comment for each site.



*I share my 100% honest thoughts and opinions in all posts. General Mills provided me with the product information as well as one prize package for review. I was only compensated in product for the sole purpose of writing an honest review and to offer details about the promotion. Please refer to my disclosure policy or email me if you have any questions.*