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| Product type | Breakfast cereal |
|---|---|
| Owner | Quaker Oats |
| Country | U.S. |
| Introduced | 1965; 60 years ago (1965) |
Quisp is a sugar-sweetenedbreakfast cereal from theQuaker Oats Company. It was introduced in 1965 and continued as a mass-marketgrocery item until the late 1970s. Subsequently, the Quaker Oats Company marketed Quisp sporadically, and with the advent of theInternet, began selling it primarily online. Quisp made its return to supermarkets as a mass-marketgrocery item in late 2012.
Quaker Oats initially marketed Quisp with a companion cereal brand,Quake.Television commercials featuring both brands were produced byJay Ward, the producer ofThe Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.
Quisp and Quake were originally released in 1965 in theUnited States by theQuaker Oats Company and generally advertised together (during the same commercial) with their character mascots competing against each other.[1] The ads werecartoons created byJay Ward, who also created the cartoon charactersRocky and Bullwinkle,Dudley Do-Right,Hoppity Hooper and many others, and the Quisp ads used some of the same voice actors as theRocky and Bullwinkle series, includingDaws Butler as the voice of Quisp andWilliam Conrad as the voice of Quake.
In an interview, Ward's creative partner Bill Scott described Ward's involvement in cereal advertising: "When the cereal company approached Jay about doing this stuff — I think it was in 1961 — he said, 'We’ll only do it as long as it’s fun.'"[2]
Quisp was depicted as a diminutivealien withantennae that functioned as a propeller enabling him to fly. The Crown Prince of Planet Q, he was dressed in a greenboilersuit with a "Q" belt buckle on his black belt, and, like moon menGidney and Cloyd of Ward'sRocky and Bullwinkle, was armed with a scrooch gun. In contrast, the more "earthy" Quake was portrayed as a tall, musclebound red-headedminer wearing blue pants, black work-boots, a red t-shirt emblazoned with a blue "Q", a yellowminer's helmet with aheadlamp, a wristband on his right arm, and a purple cape.
The commercials often asked children to choose which cereal was better, and to compete over taste or premiums. The competition reached its peak in 1972, when a series of commercials asked kids to vote for which cereal should remain on the shelves. In 1969, Quake was given a makeover, slimming down and swapping his lighted miner's hard hat for an Australian bush hat and cape.[3] Quisp was the winner and Quake cereal was discontinued, but Quake himself introduced a new sidekick, an orange kangaroo named Simon and a new orange-flavored cereal called Quake's Orange Quangaroos. In 1976, Quaker Oats ran another contest, this time asking children to choose between Quisp and Quangaroos. Quisp won again and Quangaroos was discontinued.[4]
Around 1979-80, the Quaker Oats Company discontinued Quisp due to low sales.[4] It was reintroduced in 1985, then again in the 1990s and in 2001, where it was relaunched as the "firstInternet cereal".[4] Consumers were encouraged to visit the QuispWeb site to view animated endings to cartoons on the back of the cereal box. The onlineFlash animation was produced byJohn Kricfalusi andSpümcø,[citation needed] featuring Quisp and his sidekick Quunchy (voiced byCorey Burton andMatt Danner, respectively).[citation needed]
Quisp remained in limited distribution for some time, with Quaker Oats distributing the product in "guerrilla displays" that would appear in a store and last until the product sold out.[citation needed] Even in the late 2010s, it could occasionally be found in grocery and discount chains such asDollar General,Grocery Outlet,Marc's,SuperTarget, andFood Lion.[citation needed] Quaker Oats also sold Quisp directly to the public through an online store.[5]
Quisp is a baked paste of corn meal and syrup shaped like "flying saucers". The taste is similar to that ofCap'n Crunch, also made by Quaker Oats. Quake cereal was produced by the same process and ingredients, but shaped like gears.[4][6] Packaging as of 2012 carries the tagline on the front panel, "Crunchy Corn Cereal", and on side panels, "QUAZY Energy Cereal".
Main ingredients:Corn flour,sugar,oat flour,brown sugar,coconut oil,salt. Vitamins and other additives:niacinamide,reduced iron,zinc oxide,yellow 5,yellow 6,thiamin mononitrate,pyridoxine hydrochloride,BHT,riboflavin,folic acid.
Quaker Oats also used to offer asaucer-shaped cereal with identical ingredients in its Bagged Cereals line under the name Quaker Sweet Crunch.[7]
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