Fun Pac “bowl-in-the-box” cereal let down
When I was a kid, it was a special treat to tuck into the little mini-cereal boxes known as Kellogg’s “Fun Pac” or “Variety Pack.” The ridiculously sweet breakfast “food” was a childhood favourite, that is when our parents allowed us to pick it off the grocery-store shelf from the myriad choices in the infamous cereal aisle.
But when I bought the eight-pack recently — two each of Frosted Flakes, Froot Loops (my favourite), Corn Pops and Rice Krispies (why are those included??) — I discovered that the “H-shaped” perforations were no longer part of the packaging.
THAT was what made the little boxes so cool! Slit open the cuts and you had a “bowl-in-the-box” treat for pouring in the milk, turning on Saturday-morning Looney Tunes and munching on crunchy sugar cereal while Elmer hunted Bugs. Needless to say, I was very disappointed not to be able to share the experience with Enzo.
The silly but fun little treats with the precise perforations for vivisecting Tony or Toucan Sam and surgically opening the box first appeared on the market in 1942, amazingly, and have been discontinued and re-introduced twice. More’s the pity that they are gone now. In our family, we used to bring the beauties camping: the packing genius was perfect for breakfast around a campfire.
This past week, Enzo and I had to use a knife and scissors to mechanically and manually make the H-cut ourselves — sans perforations.
Who knows why the boxes have once again been reduced to tearing open the box top. I imagine you could cite various reasons like food safety or new packaging technology or simply changing times and cereal mores (I refuse to believe that), but in an era of shrinkflation and cost-cutting, I’m guessing it was a craven attempt by dastardly Kellogg’s to shave a few cents off a product where they could in order to shove more money in the Big Cereal coffers and ruin a kid’s fun.
And mine.
