Trix (cereal)
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Trix is a popular brand of breakfast cereal made by General Mills. The cereal consists of fruit-flavored, sweetened, ground-corn pieces. These were originally round cereal pieces, but were later changed to puffed fruit-shaped pieces. As of December 2006, Trix is again available with round cereal pieces and a box advertising this "new" shape.
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[edit] Overview
Trix cereal was first marketed in 1959. The original character on the Trix box from 1960 to 1963 was a stick figure flamingo. In August 1967, on a request of the copy supervisor of General Mills ad agency to come up with an identity for the brand, Joe Harris created an anthropomorphic cartoon rabbit; in Trix animated television commercials this rabbit (voiced by Delo States and later Russell Horton) would keep trying to trick kids into giving him a bowl of Trix cereal, but he would be discovered every time, and the kids would say "Silly rabbit, Trix are for kids." After the success of the first commercial, the Trix brand soon became one of General Mills' best sellers. Much like Warner Brothers' Wile E. Coyote, the Trix Rabbit's constant struggle to obtain the unobtainable elicits a degree of sympathy from many viewers. Little did Harris know that what began as a simple marketing ploy became a revolution in how cereal was marketed.
General Mills' Yoplait division also produces a Trix yogurt, with fruit flavors also aimed at kids.
It should be noted that this General Mills cereal brand is essentially the only one not available in Canada. Reasons for this move, given the popularity of other GM cereal brands, remains a mystery.[citation needed]
[edit] Ad campaigns
In 1991, one of Trix's television ads ended in a cliffhanger accompanied by a write-in survey asking children whether or not the Trix Rabbit should be able to finally get a taste of Trix. The majority of America's children responded "yes" to the survey, and a following television ad depicted the rabbit finally getting to eat a bowl of Trix cereal uncaught. He did, indeed, finally have Trix cereal! But he has never tasted another bite since...
In 1992 Trix cereal changed by having fruit-shaped replace the original round ball pieces. Also, four new flavors were added: Grapity purple (1980-1995), Lime green (1991), Wildberry blue (1998-present), and Watermelon (1999). In 1995 the cereal pieces took on a brighter and more colorful look.
In mid 2003 the rabbit was missing from boxes of Trix during a "Solve The Great Trix Train Robbery" promotion. In his place were five suspects (Willy Gettum, Bunny O'Hare, F. Rudy Flavors, "Wild" Barry Blue, and Sally Rabbit) who could have stolen the Trix.
In a 2004 Trix television ad, the rabbit steals the Trix and hides it, but he gets hit on the head with a coconut, and so when he tries to tell the kids where the cereal is, he says "Kannufrutestoneahhappeyleef". On cereal boxes and the official website, kids had to unjumble the message to find out what he said. (The solution was "elephant's trunk"; referring not to the nose of an elephant but rather his treasure chest.)
Since then, the commercials begin with the rabbit having successfully managed to snatch the cereal, only to have the kids confuse him long enough for them to snatch it back. In some commercials, the rabbit makes a getaway to prevent the kids from getting the cereal back such as getting away in the airport.
In a Got Milk? commercial ad, the rabbit is disguised as a teenager in a supermarket. He buys a box of Trix, and the cashier says to him, "Trix? Trix are for kids." The rabbit returns to his home mumbling the phrase "Trix are for kids". Excited, he pours himself a bowl, yelling "Today, they're for rabbits!" and laughing maniacally, but when he is about to add milk, he discovers there's no milk left in the carton. The commercial ends with the Got Milk? screen.
In 2006, "Silly Rabbit Trix are for Kids" ended up #59 on TVland's 100 Greatest Quotes and Catchphrases.
[edit] In popular culture
The phrase "Silly rabbit, Trix are for kids!" has appeared in numerous pop-culture references, including musicians Sonic Youth, Kix, Public Enemy, Fresh Prince, Kill Bill, The Simpsons, The Golden Girls and Family Guy. Also, as stated above, the Trix Rabbit's consistent defeat in his attempts to eat the cereal have earned him a degree of sympathy from viewers.
- In the children's book Captain Underpants and the Wrath of the Wicked Wedgie Woman by Dav Pilkey, a Hebrew Rabbi warns George and Harold to not play any disturbing tricks during a wedding. The kids reply, "Silly rabbi, tricks are for kids!"
- On the radio show Pirate Radio, in the sketch "Cereal Killers 2" the Trix rabbit is depicted as a homosexual (called alternately "that fruity rabbit" and "peter cock-in-tail") and the tagline used (before he is shot by multiple automatic weapons) is "Silly rabbit, guns are for kids!"
- In "Cattle and the Creeping Things" from The Hold Steady's album Separation Sunday, the tagline is paraphrased in the line "Silly rabbit/Tripping is for teenagers"
- In The Powerpuff Girls, there is an episode that is in its entirety a satire of the Trix Rabbit's struggle to obtain Trix (using humorous attempts to avoid copyright infringement). In this episode, an incompetent thief (enemy of the PowerPuff Girls) tries to hurriedly steal a diamond by hiding it in a cereal factory for "Lucky Captain Rabbit King Nuggets," but loses it in a cereal box. The thief desperately follows the box through its shipment and purchase, which ironically leads him to the PowerPuff household with the PowerPuff girls unknowingly in possession of the hidden stolen diamond. The episode then focuses on the thief's attempts to impersonate the fictional cereal company mascot, Lucky Captain Rabbit King, to convince the girls to let him have cereal without letting them know his true intentions. The PowerPuff Girls fall for the deception every time, but constantly (and playfully) thwart his attempts on the pretext of the elongated Trix-parody catchphrase: "Ridiculous Lucky Captain Rabbit King! Lucky Captain Rabbit King Nuggets are for the youth!" Lucky Captain Rabbit King is a combination of Trix, Lucky Charms, Cap'n Crunch and an obscure cereal called King Vitaman.
- In Volume 1 of Kill Bill a reference is made to the slogan "silly rabbit, Trix are for kids." The lines are said in alternation between the Bride and O-Ren Ishii, and provide a hint to the former's real name, Beatrix Kiddo.
- In the film Cruel Intentions, Kathryn says "silly rabbit" in reference to her duping of her stepbrother.
- An episode of the television show Robot Chicken featured an extended parody of the Trix rabbit, wherein the "Stix" rabbit is repeatedly thwarted in his quest for a bowl of Stix cereal by children who say, "Stupid bunny, Stix are intended for children!" The Stix rabbit is charged with touching a child inappropriately while attempting to grab a bowl of Stix from a little girl. He is thrown in jail and given a contact card from the Cookie Crisp Criminal so he can start selling "sugar" (parodied as cocaine). The sketch also contains parodies of other cereal mascots like Toucan Sam, Lucky the Leprechaun, Tony the Tiger and Cap'n Crunch, as well as Colombian drug cartels.
- An episode of The Simpsons shows Homer fighting with the Easter Bunny, and he says "Silly rabbit, kicks are for ribs." Then he kicks him in the designated spot.
- An episode of The Simpsons Homer and Bart needs to capture a leprechaun and uses Trix as bait accidentally instead of Lucky Charms
- An episode of The Golden Girls shows Sophia telling Rose's boyfriend Miles (who is dressed in a black Amish suit with a beard and hat), "Silly Rabbi, tricks are for kids."
- In the Family Guy episode Da Boom, a man in a chicken suit tells Peter that the world is going to end because of Y2K. Peter looks like he's listening to the man in the chicken suit because he responds with an "AHHHH!" We then find out he was screaming because behind the man, the Trix Rabbit was about to eat a bowl of Trix. Peter rushes in and says the slogan, "Silly Rabbit, Trix are for kids! Damn long-ears, trying to take Easter away from Jesus..." Then, in the summer 2005 episode, Breaking Out is Hard to Do, the host of a sumo wrestling show announces that the show is sponsored by "Asian Trix". One of the Asian kids in the commercial says, "Silly rabbit, Trix are for kids!" and the rabbit says, "You share!" and kicks two of the kids, then snaps the neck of the third, and runs off with the box of Trix cereal.
- In an episode of Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Carlton, Will, and Uncle Phil are around a camp fire in the woods. Carlton says "For a long time it gave me nightmares. Having to witness an injustice like that. It's a constant reminder of how unfair this world can be. I still hear them taunting him. 'Silly rabbit, Trix are for kids!' How come they couldn't just give him some cereal? Those bastards!"[1]
- Trix is a Magic: The Gathering deck, based around Necropotence, Illusions of Grandeur and Donate. As other combo decks it was named after a cereal, Trix in this case.
- In an episode of America's Funniest Home Videos, there is a clip showing a man in a rabbit suit in a bar jumping onto a pool table. Tom Bergeron narrates this with the statement "Silly rabbit, trick shots are for kids!".
- In the adventure game Torin's Passage, Bags Bunny offers Zippy the Magician to do his tricks for him. Zippy replies, "Silly rabbit, tricks are for magicians."
- One of the Crunk dancers in the opening scene of Fergie's Fergalicious video is wearing part of the Trix logo.
- The Trix Rabbit has also been portrayed in the ICP song House of Horrors along with Tony and Lucky Charms. "I am a cereal killer, It's a bad habit. I killed Tony, Lucky Charms, and the Silly Rabbit."
