Stories from a Pop Culture Past: Life

There are those pop cultural moments and movements which just sweep an entire nation or continent up in their wake, and like anyone else, I've been the victim of quite a few of them, and I thought I would start sharing the tales of how I got to this point of being both an ally and enemy of pop culture. Yeah, that latter designation hasn't really been explored here at Culture Kills... though the title alone should suffice in proving my case.

My childhood was changed forever by a simple slogan from a breakfast cereal commercial.

You see, when I was a kid, I went by my middle name, which is Michael, but everyone called me Mikey. And for those of you who are of a certain age, as soon as I said that name, you know exactly what commercial and product I am talking about.

And if you don't, here is a shorter version of that particular Life Cereal ad.

Yes, that kid robbed me of a little bit of the joy that I may have had as a child.

I was a little bit chubby then, Rubenesque even, and well, at first being told every time you eat something that "Mikey Likes it!" is funny a couple of times, but trust me, it becomes damn near soul-destroying after about week 3 when people say it about everything... and then it just keeps going year upon year.

I mean, I hated that kid, and I had never even met him. And by the time I was 10, there was another Mikey commercial on, and the whole thing started all over.

And at the time, I thought it was weird that some of the other kids wanted me to eat some Pop Rocks and then drink a Coke, but now I know. For shame, for shame.

Why couldn't that character have been named Petey, Sven or Abdul huh? Why Mikey? And why couldn't the Mikey stigma have changed into a post-Goonies thing... who wouldn't have wanted to be Mikey Walsh?

So to the good people at the Quaker Oats Company who, through their advertisement took a little more of the joy out of my young life, and only left me with one little anecdote for that pain: I hate you, though I will still eat your oatmeal, but that's only because of Wilford Brimley.

Tags: life cereal, quaker oats, mikey, pop rocks, goonies, coke, urban legend, rubenesque, hate, wilford brimley, oatmeal, commercial