The United States box
The cereal was introduced in the United States in 1958. In 2003, the cereal was renamed Cocoa Rice Krispies, as Kellogg's endeavored to unite their Rice Krispies variations under a single marketing schema. In 2006, the name was changed back to Cocoa Krispies. Kellogg's has released variations of Cocoa Krispies such as Cocoa Krispies Cereal Straws, Cocoa Krispies Choconilla, and Chocos.
Other markets[]
Cocoa Krispies with milk
The cereal is known as Choco Krispis in Mexico, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Honduras, Colombia, Guatemala, Panama, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Argentina, and Choco Krispies in Portugal, Spain, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
It was introduced in the United Kingdom as Coco Pops in 1973 and is also known by that name in the Netherlands, Denmark, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Bulgaria, Ghana, Malta, New Zealand, Republic of Ireland, Finland, Italy, Greece, Sweden, Belgium, South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, Ukraine, Botswana, Hong Kong, Lebanon, Australia, Turkey and Republic of Korea and as Choco Pops in France. Later in the 1960s, the name was changed to Cocoa Krispies but subsequently reverted to Coco Pops.
The cereal was available in Canada for a time but was discontinued at some point in the early 1990s. Instead, Kellogg's sells a variant called Rice Krispies Cocoa, which is simply Rice Krispies with a light chocolate flavor.[1] Several spin-off cereals using the "Coco Pops" name, such as Caramel Flavoured Coco Pops, Coco Pops Crunchers, Coco Chex, Coco Rocks, Coco Pops Straws, Coco Pops Moon & Stars, Coco Pops Choc-N-Roll, and Coco Pops Croc Prints (shaped like Crafty Croc's feet) have also been released by Kellogg's in some countries.
A generic brand of coco pops
Chocos were introduced in some countries as Coco Pops Mega Munchers. A chocolate flavor porridge variant had been available at the end of the 2000s called Coco Pops Porridge, but didn't last long. Since 2014, they have been brought back.
United Kingdom[]
In February 1998, the British arm of Kellogg's renamed the brand in the country Choco Krispies, but sales quickly declined, and in the spring of 1999, telephone and internet poll with over one million voters found that 92% of voters wanted the name changed back to Coco Pops.
Thus, Kellogg's reverted to the original name in May 1999.[2] The advertising campaign for the poll featured newsreader Alastair Burnet and Screaming Lord Sutch as the returning officer in a town hall election setting.
Mascots[]
Cocoa Krispies first appeared in the United States in 1958, represented by a monkey named Jose. He was reportedly replaced by Coco the Elephant in 1960 when Mexican-Americans complained about the ethnic stereotype. In 1963, the Hanna-Barbera character Snagglepuss took over as the mascot. Ogg the Caveman took over towards the end of 1967.
By the end of 1973, Tusk the Elephant became the mascot of the cereal, and he remained until the end of 1982 when Snap, Crackle, and Pop (the mascots of Rice Krispies) replaced and retired Tusk the Elephant. In 1991, the mascot became Coco the Monkey. In 2001, Snap, Crackle, and Pop returned and they have remained the product's mascots to date.
The cereal was introduced in the United Kingdom under the "Coco Pops" name in 1961, with Mr. Jinks as the mascot. Later in the 1960s, Sweep (a dog hand puppet from the popular children's television program The Sooty Show) became the mascot for Coco Pops.
In 1963, Coco the Monkey was introduced, and he remains the mascot in those countries where the cereal is known as Coco Pops, Choco Krispies, and Choco Pops. In recent years, the design of Coco has been refined to give him a younger look. Coco's friends are Shortie Giraffe, Alan Anteater, Heftie Hippo, Ozmelda Ostrich, Kylie Kangaroo, and Rocky Raccoon, while Crafty Croc and the gorillas are his arch enemies.
In 1986, the cereal introduced the mascot Simmo. It became popular quickly, with a short stint on the face of the merchandise and packaging for Cocoa Krispies. The Simmo mascot featured on various materials for around about three months. Simmo also starred in an advert for the company in 1986, alongside a female companion who only appeared once named "Heap", a cartoon hippopotamus.[4]
More recent advertisements (2009) in the United Kingdom have opted away from using Coco and his friends, instead opting for things such as dancing milkmen and astronauts. Coco is still present on the box of the cereal and at the end of the advertisement but is no longer the featured character. However, the cereal box of 2009 has Coco's head as the main feature, with the title 'Coco Pops' and a smaller cereal bowl, on the right of the box. Briefly, Coco was seen as a real-life chimp. As of 2011, Kellogg's decided to bring Coco and his friends, as well as Croc back, under a new space-age style campaign, known as the "Coco Pops Promise".
In those countries where the cereal is known as "Choco Krispies," An elephant is the mascot. In 1986, Kelloggs named the elephant "Melvin". Recently, he has been called "Commando Melvin," due to commercials featuring him as a space-faring fighter and adventurer, although this is due to a misunderstanding, as Commando Melvin refers exclusively to the organization featured in the commercials, whose purpose is to defend the "forti calcio plus", a supposed ingredient in the cereal from aliens or other such villains.
In July 2014, in Mexico, due to concerns about the sugary and caloric contents of the cereal and the relation kids made with the friendly mascot, Melvin the elephant had a physical transformation from a traditional elephant body to an athletic body, resembling a strong teenager while keeping the head of the mascot. The cereal also had a recipe transformation to add more vitamins and minerals, in order to focus the product into a "health is fun" type of communication.
In Australia, the mascot is Coco the Monkey.