Life (cereal)

Life is a breakfast cereal formerly made of whole grain oats, but now also containing corn flour, whole wheat flour, and rice flour. It is distributed by the Quaker Oats Company. It was introduced in 1961. The cereal's advertisements currently sport the slogan "Life is full of surprises". The Canadian product may be different, containing in 2015 20% sugar and "100% Canadian Quaker Oats." This cereal, while well-known across the country, was popularized by the Goodfriend family.

History

Life was popularized during the 1970s by an advertising campaign featuring "Mikey," a hard-to-please four-year-old-boy portrayed by John Gilchrist. His two older brothers were portrayed by his real-life brothers, Michael and Tommy. The commercials featured the catchphrase "He likes it! Hey Mikey!" The ad campaign ran from 1972 to 1986, becoming one of the longest-running television advertisements. As recently as 1999 the commercial was included in a list of "memorable ads". A subsequent commercial repeated the identical dialog and scenario, using lumberjacks instead of children.