In 1985, Cap’n Crunch disappeared.
We – the cereal-eating populace – didn’t witness this departure in a commercial, the main way of keeping track of the lives of cereal mascots. Instead, we saw through those commercials that the departure had already happened.
The hunt was on at that point, a million dollars at stake. Well, ten thousand one-hundred-dollar prizes were at stake. The prizes in cereal boxes were detective kits that could help you decipher clues to his location. Three boxes were created to use the kits on, with three different sets of clues.
Adding to this, in perhaps the weirdest planned turn of events involving cereal mascots ever, this music video from Rick Derringer and the Crunch Bunch premiered during the PBS show Colorsounds. It’s a whole thing, involving kids in parodied costumes of ’80s icons. It’s a whole thing.
A whole thing.
Cap’n Crunch’s location was revealed on Saturday Morning, December 8, 1985. The Cap’n returned from the Milky Way and there’s no telling what he was up to out there but in his wake came perhaps his greatest foe. An enemy and an endless struggle that would come to define him into the ’90s and beyond. The Carmen Sandiego to his Chief. The Benny to his Kuato.
The Soggies.
Here are a couple of spots from the “Where’s the Cap’n?” campaign.
-ds