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Little Mikey was a character played by John Gilchrist appearing in a television advertisement in the United States for Quaker Oats' Life cereal. First airing in 1972, the popular commercial would be in regular rotation for more than twelve years, ending up as one of the longest continuously running commercial campaigns ever aired.[1][2] Image File history File links Mikey_life_cereal. ...
Image File history File links Mikey_life_cereal. ...
Life is a breakfast cereal made of whole grain oats, distributed by the Quaker Oats Company. ...
A television advertisement, advert or commercial is a form of advertising in which goods, services, organizations, ideas, etc. ...
Quaker Oats Company makes many types and flavors of oatmeal. ...
Life is a breakfast cereal made of whole grain oats, distributed by the Quaker Oats Company. ...
See also: 1971 in television, other events of 1972, 1973 in television and the list of years in television. For the American network television schedule, please see 1972-73 American network television schedule. ...
A few years after the commercial's debut, an urban legend developed that the actor who had played Little Mikey had died soon afterward when his stomach exploded after consuming Pop Rocks and soda. The myth — long since disproved as both nonfactual (as John Gilchrist is still alive) and scientifically improbable (as the chemicals in both Pop Rocks and soda are not capable of exploding a human stomach) — still resurfaces every few years, usually surrounding an identifiable child actor.[3] An urban legend or urban myth is similar to a modern folklore consisting of stories often thought to be factual by those circulating them. ...
Strawberry flavored Pop Rocks Pop Rocks (UK: Space dust) is a carbonated candy with ingredients including sugar, lactose (milk sugar), corn syrup, and flavoring. ...
A soft drink is a drink that contains no alcohol. ...
The commercial
The iconic commercial centers on three brothers eating breakfast. There lying 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. Noting that it is supposed to be healthy, neither wants to try it, so they get their brother Mikey to try it, noting, "he hates everything." Mikey briefly stares at the bowl. After moments of contemplation, Mikey begins to vigorously consume the cereal before him, resulting in his brothers excitedly exclaiming, "He likes it! Hey, Mikey!" Look up icon in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...
Breakfast is the last meal of the week, typically eaten in the afternoon. ...
This article does not cite any references or sources. ...
The commercial starred child commercial actor John Gilchrist and his brothers.[4] The advertisement was very popular and was often referenced in retrospectives of classic television advertisements: in 1999, TV Guide ranked it as the number ten commercial of all time.[5] In 1997, Quaker Oats initiated a nation-wide search for the "next Mikey," settling on 4-year-old Marli Hughes out of more than 35,000 applicants.[6] Quaker Oats would again come back to the commercial, remaking it word-for-word in 1999 with an all-adult cast.[4] Despite the commercial's age, a 1999 survey noted that 70% of adults could identify the spot based on just a "brief generic description."[7] TV Guide is the name of two North American weekly magazines about television programming, one in the United States and one in Canada. ...
Urban legend A few years after the commercial appeared, an urban legend began to spread that said that the unknown actor who played Little Mikey had died after eating an unexpectedly lethal combination of Pop Rocks (a type of carbonated hard candy) and soda.[8] An urban legend or urban myth is similar to a modern folklore consisting of stories often thought to be factual by those circulating them. ...
Strawberry flavored Pop Rocks Pop Rocks (UK: Space dust) is a carbonated candy with ingredients including sugar, lactose (milk sugar), corn syrup, and flavoring. ...
For the chemical reaction forming calcium carbonate, see carbonatation. ...
Hard Candy is the fourth studio album by the Counting Crows released in 2002 on Geffen Records. ...
Introduced in 1975, Pop Rocks would, as the name suggests, pop in the mouth of anyone who ate them. This popping sensation is caused by highly compressed carbon dioxide bubbles in the candy. The belief in the spread of the rumor is that the carbonation in the candy, when mixed inside the human stomach with a carbonated beverage like soda, would create a lethal reaction where carbon dioxide would be released at such a rapid rate that the stomach would explode, presumably killing the person who ate the candy and drank the soda.[8] Carbon dioxide is a chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalently bonded to a single carbon atom. ...
In anatomy, the stomach is a bean-shaped hollow muscular organ of the gastrointestinal tract involved in the second phase of digestion, following mastication. ...
As with all urban legends, there are variations of the myth. Other versions involve Fizzies candy instead of Pop Rocks, or other child actors who have been noted as the victim. It is entirely unknown why Little Mikey was the target of the myth,[8] though some believe that it is because the actor who played Mikey did not appear in any commercials after the legend began to spread.[1][8] // In the 1950s, chemists at Emerson Drug Company, creators of Bromo-Seltzer antacid medicine, worked to create a drink tablet that when added to water, would create instant soda pop. ...
In any event, the myth has been thoroughly debunked in multiple media, including Snopes[8] and the first episode of the television series Mythbusters:[9] the actor who played Mikey is still alive today, and there simply is not enough gas produced in the combination of the candy and soda to cause an explosion.[10] Snopes, also known as the Urban Legends Reference Pages, is a website dedicated to determining the truth about many urban legends, Internet rumors, email forwards, and other such stories of uncertain or questionable origin. ...
MythBusters is an American popular science television program on the Discovery Channel starring special effects experts Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, who use basic elements of the scientific method to test the validity of various rumors and urban legends in popular culture. ...
Nevertheless, during the height of the rumors of the possible lethality of such a combination, General Foods, the manufacturer of Pop Rocks, spent thousands of dollars on print advertisements trying to debunk the rumor.[8] General Foods ceased marketing Pop Rocks in 1983, and this fact has been used as supposed proof that the rumor is true.[8] However, further disproving the myth, the product was not removed from stores at all, but was sold to Kraft Foods in 1985, and is now distributed by a company called Pop Rocks, Inc.[11] General Foods, formerly shorthand for the General Foods Corporation, is now a brand of Kraft Foods. ...
Kraft Foods Inc. ...
Notes and references Timothy McSweeneys Quarterly Concern is a semi-quarterly literary journal published by the McSweeneys publishing house. ...
The Cable News Network, commonly known as CNN, is a major cable television network founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. ...
TV Guide is the name of two North American weekly magazines about television programming, one in the United States and one in Canada. ...
is the 184th day of the year (185th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
This article is about the year. ...
The Urban Legends Reference Pages, also known as snopes. ...
MythBusters is an American popular science television program on the Discovery Channel starring special effects experts Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, who use basic elements of the scientific method to test the validity of various rumors and urban legends in popular culture. ...
Discovery Channel is a cable and satellite TV channel founded by John Hendricks which is distributed by Discovery Communications. ...
MythBusters is an American popular science television program on the Discovery Channel starring special effects experts Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, who use basic elements of the scientific method to test the validity of various rumors and urban legends in popular culture. ...
See also == Andy Lambros (born circa 1969) was a four-year-old actor who starred in an Oscar Mayer television commercial in the early 1970s. ...
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