Cookie Crisp

Cookie Crisp is a breakfast cereal created in the early 1970s. It is currently manufactured by General Mills in the United States and Cereal Partners (under the Nestlé brand) in other countries.

Past mascots


The original Cookie Crisp mascot, Cookie Jarvis (1971 - 1983), was a wizard in the Merlin mold, with a wand, long robe, pointy hat, and big white beard. Both the wand and the pointy hat were decorated with chocolate-covered chocolate chip cookies. During his administration as Cookie Crisp mascot, Cookie Jarvis actually presided over three versions of Cookie Crisp: Ralston's Chocolate Chip Cookie Crisp, Vanilla Wafer Cookie Crisp, and Oatmeal Cookie Crisp. With one wave of his wand, Cookie Jarvis magically turned cereal bowls into cookie jars, usually chanting rhyming incantations along with it.

Eventually, Cookie Jarvis was phased out in favor of a new mascot, the Cookie Crook (1980 - 1997). The Cookie Crook was the anti-hero mascot and one of the earliest mascots for the cereal, who often attempted to steal the Cookie(cesar) Crisp. He has a comb mustache, and wears a red chef's hat with cookies all over it. He also wears a black mask that goes over his face and nose, and a purple shirt.

Along with the Cookie Crook came Officer Crumb (1983 - 1997). Officer Crumb (sometimes known simply as the Cookie Cop) is a police officer, who was always trying to thwart the attempts of the Cookie Crook from stealing the Cookie Crisp. He is dressed in a standard blue police uniform, has a big nose, with a brown, thick mustache underneath it, and a unibrow hanging over his eyes. He spoke in an Irish accent and often was a diminutive character. At first, he was portrayed as a bit of a dupe, always losing out to the Cookie Crook, but eventually it was decided that having a criminal constantly thwarting a police officer was sending the wrong message to kids. So for the majority of their tenure as mascots, Officer Crumb would consistently come out on top, preventing the Crook from stealing the cereal time and again. A typical ad would begin with the Cookie Crook attempting to steal the cereal from a live-action breakfast table (often he and Officer Crumb were portrayed as no larger than mice, so their pictures on the cereal bowl were "life size.") The Crook would have some new gadget or scheme to steal the cereal, but then the Officer would arrive and save the kid's cereal in the nick of time. Despite his heroics, Officer Crumb was a secondary character, with the ever-failing Cookie Crook as the main mascot for the cereal. Eventually the format of the ads changed to full animation, with the duo portrayed as the size of normal humans and a more slapstick approach (similar to Looney Tunes) was used.

In the early 90's, the Cookie Crook was given a sidekick in Chip the Dog, a fat canine who also wore a mask and helped him in his crimes. Chip would howl the cereal's name ("Coooooooooooookie Crisp!") in each ad, before he and his master were inevitably foiled by Officer Crumb. Despite starting as a sidekick, Chip soon began getting larger parts in the ads, until finally, in 1997, he took over as the main mascot for the cereal, and the Cookie Crook and Officer Crumb were dropped altogether. In the new format of the ads, Chip was a friendly pooch (who no longer wore a mask) who would go around offering Cookie Crisp to children. Typically an adult would interfere on the grounds that cookies are not breakfast food, but they would change their minds once Chip gave them a taste of his cereal.

Current advertising campaign
In 2005, Chip was radically redesigned, gaining a change in both attitude and species. He is now Chip the Wolf (originally known as Howler), a slim grey wolf in a red sweater. Ironically, his new design seems to have come with a change back to his criminal ways, as a fusion between his previous incarnation and Cookie Crook-the new ads generally depict him trying to steal Cookie Crisp from kids using various schemes but always coming up short. In this respect he is much like the Trix rabbit.

Later in 2005, a peanut butter-flavored variety of Cookie Crisp was introduced, titled Peanut Butter Cookie Crisp.

In 2006, a double chocolate flavored variety of Cookie Crisp was introduced, titled Double Chocolate Cookie Crisp.

In 2008, however, Chip was given a another major appearance change: he loses his red jacket and blue pants making him look more like a wolf. His snout is also made larger and more pointy, and he additionally becomes slimmer, but also has actual sharp teeth.

Chip however, was first introduced in Cookie Crisp in 2002, while Chip the Dog was still around. However, this Cookie Crisp was introduced in the UK under Nestle. Because Chip was introduced 3 years earlier in the UK before coming to the US, the earliest Chip the Wolf commercials had noticeable changes to fit the American commercial style; Chip's voice has been made deeper, the logo is different, and some commercials are made longer to fit the commercial runtime of 30 seconds.

In 2020, however, the UK Chip the Wolf was taken off of boxes of Cookie Crisp due to the intense child obesity problem going on in the United Kingdom.

Taglines

 * You can't have cookies for breakfast, but you can have Cookie Crisp! (1971 - 1983)
 * If you like cookies, you'll love Cookie Crisp! (1983 - 1990)
 * No other cereal tastes like this! (1990 - 1991)
 * Little cookies you can't resist. (1991 - 1996)
 * Coooookie Crisp! (1991 - Current)
 * It's like lots and lots of little chocolate chip cookies... for breakfast! That's Cookie Crisp! (1995 - 1997)
 * Doggone good cookies for breakfast! (1997 - 2000)
 * The one with the big chocolate chip cookie taste. (1998 - 2002)