Claim:   The child actor who sang "They're gonna taste great" in a Frosties commercial committed suicide (or was murdered by bullies, or died of cancer).

Status:   False.

Examples:

[Collected via e-mail, July 2006] Is it true that the boy in the Frosties advert - 'they're gonna taste great' commited suicide because he was bullied so much about doing the advert?   [Collected via e-mail, June 2006] There is possible rumour(s) bubbling under in the UK relating to a new TV advert for Kellogg's Frosties. It contains a somewhat 'over the top' song and dance performance by a teen boy, and has been generating a lot of negative comment on forums in the UK regarding its ability to put off viewers. On watching it yesterday my 15 year old son mentioned that he had heard in the playground chatter at school that the 'star' of the ad was in fact a terminally ill boy who had been granted the appearance as his dying wish.

Origins:   In June 2006 we began receiving inquiries about the fate of the adolescent boy who appeared in a 2006 UK Kellogg's Frosties commercial singing "They're gonna taste great." (For those Americans not up on their international cereals, Frosties are the equivalent of what are known in the U.S. as Kellogg's Frosted Flakes, right down to the same cartoon spokestiger.) The commercial, described by David Whitehouse of the Guardian as "a jingle being sung by a boy at the exact moment his voice breaks, in a tone so monotonous it appears to be operating at a frequency which toys with people's bowels," is noted for its ability to annoy:


According to rumor, the lad who sang the irritating refrain was beaten or stabbed by hooligans who took it upon themselves to deride him for his role, or was verbally picked on by bullies to the extent that he was moved to take his own life. In this, the most common form of the legend, the boy's annoying repetition of "It's gonna taste great" — and the equally monotonously-voiced rhyming phrases he delivers throughout the ad — cost him his life.

But the rumors also took a different form, one that did not have the boy's death occur as a consequence of the commercial (i.e., he was attacked by others or died by his own hand). In a secondary form of the legend, a grieving father who had lost his son to cancer succeeded, via the magic of technology, in having his deceased child inserted into the ad as a final tribute to the boy (possibly because it was the lad's dying wish). Here the youngster's flatness of tone was, by implication, explained by the rumor: the oddly-sung jingle was the result of its having been pieced together after the boy's death from recordings made of him during his brief lifetime.

When we contacted Kellogg's UK offices about this rumor, they provided us with the following statement:

The current advertisement has been well received by the vast majority of our customers. We would also like to take this opportunity to confirm that the lead boy within the advertisement is well and continues to live in his native South Africa.

Unfortunately, since we don't yet know the name of the young actor who portrayed the "Frosties Kid," and Kellogg's declined to provide us that information, we can't relay any more news about him. (One of the more interesting theories offered about the "Frosties Kid" has it that he isn't an actor at all, but rather a computer-generated creation.)

The Frosties rumor is akin to a venerable urban legend that attached to another annoying child who appeared in another breakfast cereal commercial. "Little Mikey," the character played by child actor in a LIFE cereal commercial in the 1970s, was rumored to have died after combining Pop Rocks (a carbonated candy) with soda. That story was wholly false, but it was widely believed at the time, and that belief even somewhat continues to this day.

Another "dead child performer" story of much more recent vintage concerns the kid in the "Lean Wit It, Rock Wit It" video who was said to have snapped his neck executing a dance move.

Possibly the conclusion of the Frosties ad where the boy leaves Tony the Tiger and the trailing crowd behind as he rises up into the sky (where Tony reappears beside him to issue a final "They're gonna taste great!") worked to fuel all forms of the rumor, in that rising into the sky is a visual metaphor for going to Heaven.

Barbara "'they're grrrRRREAT!' gig in the sky" Mikkelson

Last updated:   16 July 2006

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  Sources:

    Whitehouse, David.   "The Hard Sell."

    The Guardian.   24 June 2006   (The Guide; p. 3).