Cookie Crisp

A box of Cookie Crisp from 2008, featuring Chip the Wolf.

Cookie Crisp is a breakfast cereal that attempts to recreate the taste of chocolate chip cookies. It is manufactured by General Mills in the United States^[1][2][3] and Cereal Partners (under the Nestlé brand) in other countries. Introduced in 1977,^[4] it was originally manufactured by Ralston Purina^[5] until they sold the trademark to General Mills in 1997, who soon after changed the recipe.

Varieties

Cookie Crisp cereal

Double Chocolate Cookie Crisp^[4][6] was a double chocolate-flavored variety of Cookie Crisp introduced in 2007.

Peanut Butter Cookie Crisp^[4][7] was also introduced. It has the taste of peanut butter cookies.

In July 2009, Cookie Crisp Sprinkles^[2][8] were introduced. They are vanilla cookies with small sprinkles on them. The cereal is said to be gluten free. In Summer 2009, Nestlé released new packaging for the UK version of Cookie Crisp with sprinkles.

Cookie Crisp Brownie^[9] was introduced in the U.K. in 2013, which has the flavor of brownies,

The cereal was once available in a vanilla wafer flavor as well.^[10]

During his tenure as Cookie Crisp mascot, Cookie Jarvis was used on over three versions of Cookie Crisp: Ralston’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Crisp, Vanilla Wafer Cookie Crisp, and Oatmeal Cookie Crisp.

Imitations

In 1997, Ralston sold their cereal line to General Mills, who soon after changed the recipe, prompting many Cookie Crisp lovers to seek the original taste in knock-off and foreign brands.

Keebler Cookie Crunch^[11] was introduced by Kellogg’s in 2008. This cereal has cookie pieces that represent Chips Deluxe and are strikingly similar to Cookie Crisp. It also includes round O shapes that represent Keebler’s popular fudge stripe cookies.

Advertising

Cookie Jarvis

A box of Cookie Crisp from 1984, featuring Cookie Jarvis.^[1]

Introduced in 1977, the first Cookie Crisp mascot, Cookie Jarvis,^[1][12][13] was a wizard in the Merlin mold, who with one wave of his wand, magically turned cereal bowls into cookie jars, usually chanting rhyming incantations along with it.

Cookie Crook and Cookie Cop

In 1985, Cookie Jarvis was replaced by the Cookie Crook,^[1] an anti-hero robber who attempts to steal the Cookie Crisp, and the Cookie Cop (also known as Officer Crumb), a police officer with an Irish accent who thwarts the Cookie Crook's attempts to steal the Cookie Crisp.

A typical ad would begin with the Cookie Crook attempting to steal the cereal from a live-action breakfast table; often he and the Cookie Cop were portrayed as no larger than mice, so their pictures on the cereal bowl were “life size". The Crook would have some new gadget or scheme to steal the cereal, but then the Cookie Cop would arrive and save the kid’s cereal in the nick of time. Eventually, the format of the ads changed to full animation, and the duo was portrayed as the size of normal humans; a more slapstick approach (similar to Looney Tunes) was used in these commercials.

Chip the Dog

From left: the Cookie Crook, the Cookie Cop, and Chip the Dog.

In 1990, the Cookie Crook was given a sidekick named Chip the Dog.^[1] Chip would howl the cereal's name ("Coo-oooooooooookie Crisp!") in each ad before he and his master were inevitably foiled by the Cookie Cop.

After General Mills bought the Cookie Crisp trademark from Ralston in 1997, Chip became the sole mascot for the cereal, and the Cookie Crook and Cookie Cop were retired. In the new format of the advertisements, Chip was a friendly pooch, no longer wearing a mask, who offered Cookie Crisp to a group of kids. Typically an adult would interfere on the grounds that cookies are not breakfast food, but they would change their minds once Chip gave them a taste of his Cookie Crisp.

Chip the Wolf

In 2003, Cookie Crisp was introduced in Europe and the United Kingdom. The mascot in these countries is Chip the Wolf^[1] (originally known as The Howler), a wolf who fruitlessly attempts to steal Cookie Crisp from children, and describes the cereal: "It looks like chocolate chip cookies. Tastes like 'em too. But it's a breakfast cereal!". He is voiced by Marc Silk.

In 2005, Chip the Wolf replaced Chip the Dog as the cereal's mascot in the United States.

Foreign variants

In some foreign boxes of Cookie Crisp, the mascot is a panther who is light grey in color and wears Chip’s clothing. The panther resembles a mix between Bagheera and the Pink Panther. His team consists of him, the Trix Rabbit, Koko (a brown koala), Stars (an astronaut bear), and Snow (a polar bear) who represent other cereals.

See also

• List of breakfast cereals

References

1. "COOKIE: A Love Story". Sember Resources. 2012.
2. Knapp, Sarah (December 9, 2009). "General Mills to Shrink Sugar Content in Cereals". AdWeek. Retrieved January 17, 2016.
3. McKinney, Matt (December 9, 2009). "General Mills is dialing back its sugary cereals another notch". Star Tribune. Retrieved January 17, 2016.
4. Piho, N.T. (2009). My Two-Year-Old Eats Octopus: Raising Children Who Love to Eat Everything. Bull Publishing Company. p. pt77. ISBN 978-1-933503-34-9. Retrieved January 18, 2016.
5. "Foods & Nutrition Encyclopedia, Two Volume Set". CRC Press. 1993.
6. Ritzer, G. (2014). Essentials of Sociology. SAGE Publications. p. 76. ISBN 978-1-4833-5979-3. Retrieved January 17, 2016.
7. MacGregor, Hilary E. "On the edges: Nutrition in the grocery store". MailTribune.com.
8. Rheanna O'Neil Bellomo (27 November 2015). "General Mills Reveals The Two Most Christmas-y Cereals Ever". Delish. Retrieved 18 January 2016.
9. "Calories in Nestle Cookie Crisp Brownie Cereal - Calories and Nutrition Facts". MyFitnessPal.com. Retrieved 18 January 2016.
10. "The Dieter's Calorie Counter". Dell Pub. 1992.
11. Abigail Goldman (11 August 2010). "If Nevada and other states have their way, you'll know immediately what you're eating". LasVegasSun.com. Retrieved 18 January 2016.
12. "The Language of Television Advertising".
13. Freeman, Rachel. "Fat Kid Fridays". Thrillist. Retrieved 17 January 2016.

External links

• Cookie Crisp City online game
• Nestlé website in Malaysia