I'm a sucker for vintage, and this poster hit the sweet spot. Pun intended. You're looking at one of the original prints of Kellogg's Frosted Flakes' mascot, Tony the Tiger. But did you know this could have easily been Katy the Kangaroo or Elmo the Elephant? It's true. There was a competition in the 1950s for which mascot would grace the cover of the Frosted Flakes box, and Tony the Tiger won out. Even over Newt the Gnu, if you can believe that. It's strange to think that it could be any other character to grace the box since Tony, and his trademark, "They're great!" slogan quickly become synonymous with breakfast all across out country. His trademark saying was so popular, in fact, that according to Wikipedia, there was even a 1955 print ad in Life magazine that featured Tony taking a microphone away from You Bet Your Life host Groucho Marx and saying, "You bet your life they're Gr-r-reat!"

Vintage Revived
Vintage Revived
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However, there's no "They're great!" to be found on this print. Instead, it says "The best to you, which doesn't really have the same "umph". But this particular print, found on the shelves at Vintage Revived in Springfield, not only features the original 1950s art with bold striping and "football shaped head", it features half of the original Frosted the Flakes/Tony the Tiger slogan, which was "The best to you each morning."

It's not odd finding vintage Kellogg's memorabilia in our area, but it sure is fun to see it pop up in our favorite resale shops and research its history.

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