Product evolution
Unlike its sister cereal Cocoa Pebbles, Fruity Pebbles has undergone many formula changes, additions and variants. The cereal started out with three colors—orange, red, and yellow—and natural orange, lemon and tangerine flavors, but were later flavored in natural orange and artificial lemon and cherry. New colors were added over time: purple in 1985, green in 1987, "Berry Blue" in 1994, "Incrediberry Purple" in 1995 and "Bedrock Berry Pink" in 2005.
Upon Post's acquisition of MOM Brands in 2015 (the former Malt-O-Meal), both the Cocoa and Fruity versions of Pebbles, along with other Post brands, began to be offered in packaging similar to that of Malt-O-Meal's discounted generic line of bagged cereals alongside the traditional box sizes.
Pebbles has since expanded beyond only producing cereal. To celebrate the products' 50th birthday in 2021, Post partnered with the Love Your Melon hat company to produce winter hats and shirts. Post has also licensed other food companies to put out other food products that bear both the Fruity and Cocoa Pebbles flavors including protein powder, white chocolate bars (with the actual cereal mixed in), ice cream (with or without the actual cereal in it), crisps, and Fruity and Cocoa Pebbles Marshmallow Treats (like those made with Rice Krispies), among others.
Television commercials
The earliest commercials produced by Post's ad agency D'Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles with cooperation from Hanna-Barbera featured the animated duo Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble (as voiced by Alan Reed and Mel Blanc, respectively) interacting cheerfully with live-action children, eating the cereal around a typical household breakfast table; others showed Fred and Barney enjoying the cereal with their wives around their Bedrock breakfast table or in other locales and situations in Bedrock.
Commercials after about 1978 were entirely animated and would have a typical plot repeated with various differences. Fred eats cereal while Barney would want some as well; to that end, Barney would either disguise himself or distract Fred from his bowl of cereal using various creative and increasingly outrageous means. While Fred was distracted, Barney would eat some Pebbles, but Fred would quickly discover Barney's deception, usually due to Barney's excitement at eating the cereal that would cause his trick to be discovered and/or his disguise falling apart. Angry about having his breakfast stolen, he would normally exclaim, "Barney! My Pebbles!" Barney would then chuckle and deliver a comedic line (Such as, "Hate to eat and run".) while running away from the angry Fred, and Fred would give chase. A frequently used tagline for these particular commercials was "They're Yabba-Dabba-Delicious!". Commercials for the cereal aired around the Christmas season feature Barney trying to steal the cereal, however, in the spirit of the holidays, Fred lets Barney have the cereal with him.
In 2009, Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm became more prominent in the commercials, which were produced by legendary animator Rick Reinert. From 2010 to 2012, the commercials for Pebbles cereal were produced by the ad agency Burns Group using stop motion animation with the tagline that the cereal "rocks your whole mouth". The former motif of Barney's cereal theft was removed to focus on the enjoyment of the cereal.
WWE professional wrestler John Cena is an official endorser of Fruity Pebbles as the result of references to the cereal made by Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson over the course of 2011, where Rock nicknamed Cena (a bowl of) Fruity Pebbles based on his bright shirts.[8][9][10]
From 2012 to 2014, Pebbles commercials changed to a scene where Bamm-Bamm and Pebbles perform kung fu and other martial arts.
Since 2014, Pebbles commercials prompt viewers to take a side with either Team Cocoa or Team Fruity, and each individual advertisement includes a different child exemplifying their devoutness to one of the teams. Various celebrities, such as actress Bella Thorne, retired professional basketball player Shaquille O'Neal, and professional soccer player Alex Morgan have been chosen as mascots for either group, as well.
Box cover illustrations
The box covers for the various Pebbles boxes have been illustrated by commercial artist Seymour Schachter [Seymour Schachter Illustration] since 2004.
Lawsuit
In May 2010, a controversial commercial of Cocoa Pebbles led to a lawsuit by WWE wrestler Hulk Hogan. In the spring of 2010, a commercial where Barney and Fred face off against a wrestler named Hulk Boulder aired on TV. The commercial ended with Hulk Boulder getting smashed to pieces by Bamm-Bamm after losing the wrestling match.[11] Hulk Hogan sued Post, saying they stole his image to promote Pebbles and that his image had been damaged by the commercials. He used the name Hulk Boulder early in his career until his name was changed to sound more Irish. The suit was settled in September 2010 with a condition of banning the commercial from repeats.[12]
