How many of you remember the cereal box promotion that included a metal railroad logo, from different railroads, in each box? Anyone remember what cereal brand ran that promotion? It must have happened right after WWII, because during the war all metal was scarce due to the war effort. I remember that I insisted that my Mother buy that particular brand just to get another logo.
The logos, themselves were a very thin piece of lithographed steel, cut into the shape of whatever RR's logo it was. There was no identifying just what logo each box had in it from the outside so, naturally you'd get duplicates and you missed others that you wanted for your collection. So then, you started trading logos with your buddies, so that each of you could have a more complete collection. I had a fairly complete collection but I'm sure my parents were sick and tired of eating whatever cereal that ran the promo! I wish that I could say that I still have that collection, but like so many other treasures of mine, my parents threw them away sometime after I no longer lived at home.
My reason for bringing this up is to suggest that such a promotion might be timely once again. The cost of making a cheap little litho sign, appx. 3" X 4" would be rather small for a large cereal company to do. But it would make the desirability of collecting them, thus buying more cereal, a real factor. Not only that, but it would raise the awareness of trains and railroading to our youngsters, bringing more youth into the hobby of RR's or model RR's. I just wonder if one of our modern cereal companies might consider trying this as a running promotion for their products. And while I'm not a fan of cereal for breakfast (probably because I had eaten so much of whatever brand it was that had the logos!) I would certainly be "obligated" to acquire as many logos as I could gather up. And then, once having the cereal, you might as well eat it, too!
Paul Fischer
