Life (cereal)

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Life is a breakfast cereal made of whole grain oats, distributed by the Quaker Oats Company. It was introduced during the year 1961.

Life was popularized during the 1970s by an advertising campaign featuring "Mikey," a finicky four-year-old who "hates everything." The commercials featured the catch phrase "He likes it! Hey Mikey!" The ad campaign ran from 1972 to 1984, becoming one of the longest running and popular commercials of all time. The "Mikey" character became so ingrained in the consciousness of American popular culture that urban legends began to develop surrounding the actors in the commercial. The most popular urban legend was that the actor who portrayed "Mikey" had died from eating Pop Rocks while drinking Coca-Cola. According to the urban legend, "Mikey" had a liver condition, and the mixing of Pop Rocks and Coca-Cola caused his liver to fail. In reality, John Gilchrist, who played "Mikey," is still alive and works as an advertising account manager in New York. The other kids in the "Mikey" commercial were Gilchrist's brothers in real life, and are also still alive.

In 1978, Cinnamon Life was introduced. Today Cinnamon Life comprises one third of total Life sales. Twenty five years after the release of Cinnamon Life, Honey Graham Life was added to the brand, and recently, Life has added a fourth and fifth flavor, Life Vanilla Yogurt Crunch and Life Chocolate Oat Crunch. In Canada, there is also Multigrain Life. The late 1980s saw a short-lived Raisin Life in an attempt to compete with Raisin Bran. In the early 2000s, there was also a short-lived version called Baked Apple Life. In 2008, Maple & Brown Sugar Life was introduced.

The cereal's advertisements currently sport the slogan "Life is full of surprises".