Honey Monster Puffs

Honey Monster Puffs (previously known as Sugar Puffs) are a honey-flavoured breakfast cereal made from sugar-coated wheat sold in the United Kingdom.

"Sugar Puffs" redirects here. For the oldest living pony until 2007, see Sugar Puff.
Sugar Puffs packaging featuring the Honey Monster, the advertising face of the cereal

Honey Monster Puffs were first launched in 1957, with Jeremy the Bear. They were invented by William Halliday Davies (1919–2009), production manager at the Quaker Oats mill in Southall. For many years they were made by the Quaker Oats Company, but in 2006 they were sold to Big Bear t/a Honey Monster Foods, based in Leicester. [1]

In 2016, food manufacturer Brecks Company took over production of Honey Monster Puffs under licence.[2]

Mascot

The cereal is known for its Honey Monster mascot, a large, hairy, yellow creature introduced in 1976. In 2014 the product was re-branded to Honey Monster Puffs, and its recipe changed to have 8% less sugar and 20% more honey,[3] so that the total sugar content is now 29% by mass, and the honey content has increased from 3% to 3.6%.[4]

Varieties

There have been a number of variations on the basic product, during the 1990s and 2000s including:

  • Banana Puffs
  • Choco Puffs
  • Honey Waffles
  • Spooky Puffs
  • Honeycomb Puffs
  • Strawberry Puffs
  • Snowy Puffs

Advertising

Sugar Puffs posters can clearly be seen in the 1966 film Daleks – Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D.. They helped to finance the film, and in return held a giveaway contest in which the grand prize was a Dalek prop made for the film.

The cereal's mascot is the Honey Monster, a large, hairy, yellow humanoid creature who was first seen on TV in 1976 in an advertisement created by John Webster of the advertising agency BMP.[5] The advert focused around a nutritional message which was illustrated by the parent and child relationship of actor Henry McGee and the Honey Monster. The monster shouts "Tell them about the honey, mummy!" to which McGee responds "I'm not his mummy!". The monster then proceeds to destroy the set.

In the late 1980s, "Sugar Puffs" advertisements featured the slogan "You'll Go Monster-Mad For The Honey". These advertisements portrayed children trying to get access to a packet of Sugar Puffs with someone or something then preventing them from getting the Sugar Puffs. The children would then cry "I Want My Honey!!" and they would then turn into Sugar Puffs Honey Monsters and thus get the Sugar Puffs.

There were a number of settings for these advertisements. The advertisements themselves were:

  • "Breakfast Time": Where a boy tries to reach a packet of Sugar Puffs on a fairly high cupboard.
  • "School History Class":Where a class of children turned into the Honey Monster after seeing a Sugar Puffs delivery lorry pull up outside their classroom.
  • "Boyscouts": Where three boyscouts turned into the Honey Monster after their tent zipper failed to undo properly.
  • "Fairground": Where a girl tried to win a packet of Sugar Puffs at a hoop-throwing stall.
  • "School Tour". A futuristic advertisement which shows boys and girls transforming into the Honey Monster after they get shown around a lavish Sugar Puffs factory.
  • "Desert Island". A boy is sat at home wanting his "honey", because he cannot get milk out of the milk glass. He then gets shot out of space and back into the Earth on a Caribbean setting, as the monster. He now has milk.

After these advertisements, the Sugar Puffs Honey Monster was then seen in advertisements in which he was depicted playing football and also as a James Bond-style hero. Punk poet John Cooper Clarke also featured in a series of off the wall adverts in the 1990s. An advertisement showing the Honey Monster onstage with Boyzone at Wembley Arena aired in 1996, and was voted #17 in ITV's Best TV Ads Ever 2 list in 2006, sharing the position with the original 1976 advert. Another of the 1996 adverts showed him winning a football match. In 1998, an advert which depicted him as "Puff" Daddy aired. In 1999, an advert called "Monster Men vs Breakin' Boyz" aired. A modern style remake of the original 1976 advert aired in 2003.

In March 2008, a new campaign was launched with a television advertisement. The spot featured Honey Monster and his housemate sitting at their breakfast table, singing a nonsense song about Sugar Puffs, in the scat style. Finishing with the strapline ‘Feed the fun’, the advertisement represented the idea that Honey Monster brings out the child in everyone. The advert was criticised by Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding of the comedy duo The Mighty Boosh, who considered it to be a plagiarisation of the "crimping" songs in their television series.

In August 2008 the Honey Monster featured in a charity video and single by the group Samanda, called "Honey Love". Another new advert was broadcast for the Honey Waffles cereal variant, returning the Honey Monster to his true self along with his undying love for honey. The ad ends with the tagline (as said by the Honey Monster) "Don't tell 'em about the honey, mummy", a reference to the Sugar Puffs endline from the 1970s.

The Honey Monster was used as part of a recurring gag in the film Four Lions when one of the main characters uses an outfit of the character as a disguise in the final act.

Paul Calf is frequently seen eating Honey Monster Puffs.

In the British science-fiction show Red Dwarf, Dave Lister is fond of Sugar Puff sandwiches.

In 2009, as part of Red Nose Day, Honey Monster appeared with many other advertising icons in a self-deprecating sketch called 'The Greatest Minds in Advertising'. As the punchline Honey Monster silences his colleagues by singing a song in falsetto (not his trademark deep voice) exhorting people not to buy advertised products but to give their money to Comic Relief instead.

The cereal features in the 2018 Interactive film Black Mirror: Bandersnatch.

As a result of Honey Monster appearing in the kit of Newcastle United F.C., sales of Sugar Puffs fell by 20% in the north-east of England, as fans of Newcastle's traditional rivals, Sunderland A.F.C., boycotted the brand.[6]

Similar products
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References
  1. "Honey monster not enough for Big Bear".
  2. "Honey Monster sold under licence to Brecks Co".
  3. Stone, Jon (17 October 2014). "Sugar Puffs renamed 'Honey Monster Puffs' to play down association with sugar". The Independent. Retrieved 12 February 2015.
  4. "Honey Monster Puffs information". Retrieved 12 January 2017.
  5. Mark Tungate, Adland: A Global History of Advertising, Kogan Page Publishers, London, 2007, p. 92.
  6. Bandini, Nicky; Bass, Ian; Dart, James (27 September 2006). "Have any footballers ever admitted moving for the money?". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 17 August 2020.
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