Little Mikey

Little Mikey was a fictional boy played by John Gilchrist (born February 2, 1968) in an American television commercial promoting Quaker Oats' breakfast cereal Life. The ad was created by art director Bob Gage, who also directed the commercial.[1] It first aired in 1972. The popular ad campaign featuring Mikey remained in regular rotation for more than 12 years and ended up as one of the longest continuously running commercial campaigns ever aired.[2][3]

Original commercial

The commercial centers on three young brothers eating breakfast. Before them sits a heaping bowl of Life breakfast cereal. Two of the brothers question each other about the cereal, prodding each other to try it, and noting that it is supposed to be healthy. Neither boy has any desire to taste it ("I'm not gonna try it—you try it!"), so they get their brother Mikey to do so ("Let's get Mikey"), noting, "he hates everything". Mikey briefly stares at the bowl. After moments of contemplation, he begins to vigorously consume the cereal before him, resulting in his brothers excitedly exclaiming, "He likes it! Hey, Mikey!" Mikey's brothers in the commercial are Gilchrist's actual brothers, named Michael (the one on the left in the spot) and Tommy.[4] John is the middle child of seven children born to Tom and Pat Gilchrist of the Bronx..

Reception

The advertisement was very popular and won a Clio Award in 1974.[5] It was also often referenced in retrospectives of classic television advertisements. For example, in 1999, TV Guide ranked it the No. 10 commercial of all time.[6] Despite the commercial's age, a 1999 survey noted that 70 percent of adults could identify the spot based on just a "brief generic description."[7]

Sequels

A series of "Today's Mikey" ads aired in the 1980s, with Gilchrist bemusedly reprising the character as a college student.

In 1996, Quaker Oats commissioned director Rick Schulze, of Industrial Light & Magic Commercial Productions, to digitally composite a bottle of Snapple, then a subsidiary of Quaker Oats, into the original Life ad, via longtime Snapple ad agency Kirshenbaum Bond & Partners, New York. This time, however, in an ironic twist, Mikey likes some of the product's flavors while disliking the others.[8]

Life's ad agency, Foote, Cone & Belding, in Chicago, revived the Mikey character for two campaigns in the late 1990s. In 1997, Quaker Oats initiated a nationwide search for the "next Mikey", settling on 4-year-old Marli Hughes out of more than 35,000 applicants.[9] She also appeared in a TV commercial, "Better Life" directed by Howard Rose, where she is seen telling her classmates how she won the contest and traveled to New York to do some TV shows. She adds that as the new Mikey she gets to eat as much Life cereal as she wants.[10]

In 1999, Quaker Oats remade the commercial word for word with an all-adult cast acting like kids. Mikey is portrayed by New York-based actor Jimmy Starace.[11][12]

Afterward

By 2012, aged 44, Gilchrist had become director of media sales for MSG Network. He has said that he has no clear memories of filming the original commercial as he was only three and a half years old.[13]

References
  1. Nick Ravo (2000-04-08). "Robert Gage, 78, Art Director; Had a Role in Well-Known Ads". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-08-15.
  2. Spitznagel, Eric. "Mikey: An Investigation". Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern. Archived from the original on 2007-06-10. Retrieved 2007-02-09.
  3. "Press release". Quaker Oats. January 2000.
  4. "Mikey Life Cereal actor: John Gilchrist". Orlando Sentinel. December 9, 1986.
  5. Slotnik, Daniel E. (December 16, 2011). "Edie Stevenson, 81; Wrote 'Let's Get Mikey' Ad". The New York Times. p. A32.
  6. "The 50 Greatest Commercials of All Time". TV Guide. July 3, 1999.
  7. Forbes Consulting Group (August 1999). Strategic Equity Assessment for Life Cereal.
  8. Chris Nashawaty (1996-04-09). "Coming Back to Life". Entertainment Weekly (323). Retrieved 2010-08-15.
  9. "Life Cereal Brand History". Quaker Oats.
  10. Scott Hume (1998-01-19). "Hey Mikey! Meet Marli". Adweek. Retrieved 2010-08-15.
  11. "Transcript". CNN. January 17, 2000.
  12. "Remember Mikey? He's back". Associated Press. 2000-01-23. Retrieved 2010-08-15.
  13. Best, Neal (November 22, 2012). "John Gilchrist, who played "Mikey" in TV ad, still likes it after all these years". Newsday. Retrieved 3 July 2014.

Further reading

Thomas Riggs, ed. (1999). "MIKEY Campaign". Encyclopedia of Major Marketing Campaigns. Detroit [etc.]: Gale. ISBN 0-7876-3042-X.

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