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[This post was written for the 52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History, Week 21: Commercials]

If you were a child of the 70s, you probably saw alot of commercials during Saturday morning cartoons. That’s when you heard about the Honey Comb Hideout, went cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs, and and you knew all about Conjunction Junction.

In 1976, it was the bicentennial. Everyone and everything was plugged into our country’s history. That was the first year I got to vote–on whether the rabbit got to eat Trix.

You know the commercial. The luckless rabbit plotting to get his bowl of Trix. Each time, he missed out because “Trix were for kids!”

So, in 1976, General Mills did a bunch of commercial asking whether the rabbit should be allowed to eat Trix. You sent in a box top and got a nifty button showing your support or opposition.

I always thought the commercials were cruel. Let the darn rabbit eat his cereal! So, I sent my vote in and got my button. I still have it, in fact:

The final vote was overwhelmingly in favor of the rabbit getting his Trix. I don’t know why, but it seems to me that in the follow up commercial, they announced the vote and then somehow the rabbit was tricked out of his bowl. I could be mistaken on that.

Those were the days, eh? A naive kid could send in a coupon and a couple of boxed tops and cast their vote…even get a button in return. Shoot! A kid could get a toy by sending in the box tops and the price of postage. Nowadays, your Mom’s got to right a check to get the special prizes.

I’ve always taken voting seriously. Maybe it was the Trix rabbit campaign that got me started. LOL