1985: IPC JUNE FREE GIFTS HOUSE AD

From 1985: a June free gift boom courtesy of the IPC weeklies...

The humor (BUSTER and WHIZZER AND CHIPS) and boys 'adventure' weeklies (EAGLE AND TIGER and ROY OF THE ROVERS) served up, courtesy of a hook-up with stodgy breakfast biscuit provider (now, apparently, making inroads into China if the SUNDAY TIMES is to be believed) WEETABIX for cover-mounted promo badges featuring the briefly ubiquitous marketing creations (stars of TV ads, the improbable Weetabix Club and on-packaging appearances).  The badges were, probably, randomly distributed across the four titles.  

Odd-man-out was BATTLE ACTION FORCE who were fully engaged in the battle against global terror with a free, no-doubt Palitoy bankrolled, ACTION FORCE poster.

1983: WEETABIX CLUB Advert

From 1983: A chance to join the WEETABIX FAN CLUB... and I did.

Fan Clubs were, in the pre-internet age, a tried-and-tested way of reaching out to young consumers and buying their ongoing loyalty with the obligitory membership kit (see above) and the occasional mail-out when you have something specific to flog or feel you need to remind your membership of their loyalties.  

I was never a great fan of Weetabix... but it was the breakfast table staple when I was little.  So, of course, I signed-up for the club.  And, although long since lost, I seem to remember the membership kit was pretty cool.  And I'm fairly sure they sent out further issues of the comic for at least a little while.  

This ad appeared in a December copy of the EAGLE. 

1979: DC COMICS AND WEETABIX BREAKFAST CEREAL

Zap! Pow! Wham!  DC COMICS freebies at breakfast time!

I've mentioned this WEETABIX promotion before in a previous post but now I've (finally) found an advert (published in LOOK-IN cover-dated 10 November 1979) to prove it really did happen!

During the promotion, buyers of the (frankly unappetising) breakfast biscuits could collect the free cards within each box (the bigger the box, the more cards included).  Frustratingly, the advert doesn't show them.

Similar tie-ins also ran for FLASH GORDON and STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE (Weetabix really was the breakfast cereal of choice for would-be geeks).

The copy also mentions that the boxes doubles as action scenes for the cards (the base of the cards allowed you to stand them up, providing there was no hint of a breeze).  I don't recall these but i do remember boxes having a DC superhero mask printed on the reverse (I chose the Flash after careful consideration in the local Tesco) which suggests that the DC tie-in continued longer.

1981: WEETABIX FLASH GORDON MOVIE PROMOTION

I never really liked Weetabix very much, despite it being a childhood breakfast staple (I was even a member of their mid-eighties WEETABIX CLUB.  How I wish I'd kept that membership kit!).  But I did love their run of SF and comics licensing tie-ups in the early 1980s (I was too young for the seventies DOCTOR WHO card inserts, which have subsequently become legendary.

I remember the DC Comics masks that you could cut out from the back of the box (I had The Flash.  I had no idea who he was... but he had - by a mile - the coolest mask).  I'm not sure when they ran that promotion but - I assume - it was in the late seventies and pegged to the release of SUPERMAN THE MOVIE (although the license was for DC's comic book superheroes - Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman et al - rather than their screen offspring).

Another favourite was Weetabix's STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE tie-up.  That was a series of artwork character cards featuring the regular cast and - in a nod to the Star Wars generation - the Klingons and other barely seen on-screen aliens.

This particular advert (from March 1981) promoted the FLASH GORDON CARDS (18 to collect) inserted into packs.  It's not made clear here but - as I recall - the larger the pack: the more cards that were inserted inside.  That was certainly true for the STAR TREK promotion and - I assume - the same was true here.