We're Cheerios kind of people

Growing up the sweetest cereal we ever ate was the infamous Honey Nut/Regular Cheerios mix. My mom just wasn't big on feeding us sugar for breakfast. Or for any other meal for that matter.  In fact I'm relatively certain that she still eats oatmeal (with raisins if she's feeling wild) every single morning of her life. 

I'm not sure when the last time you bought Cheerios at Costco was, but if it's been a while, I'll warn you now, that they don't come with a toy. Not even a game or puzzle on the back of the box. Just plain "nourish and strengthening" Cheerios.

If ever there was a cereal with a toy in the box (Tony the Tiger from Frosted Flakes is the only thing I remember.....something about a diver-guy in a 2 liter bottle? some help here? Anybody else remember that?) some other kid in my family got to it long before I even knew it was there. Don't feel too bad for me though, nobody else ever bothered to do the crossword puzzle or the maze on the side of the box. I wasn't totally deprived. 

Normally Josh and I don't buy treat cereal either, but Cinnamon Toast Crunch must have been on sale because Josh bought some.

Given my lack of history cereal toys, imagine my surprise when I poured myself a bowl cereal and found this little creature sitting in the middle of my cereal.

Yes, they put a rat in my cereal. Yes I screamed a little.

*Side note: I didn't actually eat the cereal because after I finished freaking out about rat I realized that "cinnamon and sugar sprinkled on every bite" probably doesn't fall within my "Don't eat sugar until March"  deal with Katy. All this trauma for nothing.

So, what I wanna know is what marketing genius thought "hey, I bet more moms will buy this cereal for their kids if we wrap a rat in plastic and throw it in the middle of our sugar coated cereal." And more importantly what marketing manager said "Yes, yes YES! That is sheer brilliance! You, Ratboy, are getting a promotion."

Gotta say, at this point I'm not a big fan of Ratboy.