I ordinarily don’t like commercials. I do like it when they try to be at least entertaining… This commercial stayed in pop culture for over 40 years now. This Life cereal commercial appeared in 1972 and ran until 1984.
I grew up watching Mikey’s brothers trying to get their brother who hates everything to eat the supposedly healthy Life Cereal.
Mikey was portrayed by John Gilchrist and he is alive now and doing fine despite the urban legend that he died.
Yes, word got around that the kid that played Mikey bought the farm by eating “pop rocks” and drinking soda. His stomach then exploded because of the lethal combination. A friend of his family actually called his mother in tears saying she was so sorry about the loss of her son…when in reality he just got home from school.
What is interesting about the commercial is that the two kids playing his brothers are John Gilchrist’s brothers in real life.
John today is Director of Media Sales at MSG Network and is living a happy life with his wife and kids…and yes he still enjoys Life Cereal.
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Classic – you could do a whole series, just on these old commercials.
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Well funny you should say that…well at least one more coming. I always liked this one.
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I didn’t realize the ‘Mikey’ commercial had such a long run. It’s amazing how simple and memorable it was.
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I didn’t know his real brothers appeared with him.
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That’s pretty cool.
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truly a classic and great commercial! Kind of like “where’s the Beef?”, it is still remembered 30 or more years on and spawned a whole new catchphrase.
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A lot of them became part of our culture.
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When I think of the Mikey commercials- I always think of the urban legend- that he at ate a bag of pop rocks and died. I think it was pop rocks. Mikey Lives!
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Alive and well lol! I didn’t know that those other two kids were his real brothers.
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