Little Mikey - wikipedia Little Mikey Little Mikey was a fictional boy played by John Gilchrist in an American television commercial promoting Quaker Oats ' breakfast cereal Life. The ad was created by art director Bob Gage, who also directed the commercial. It first aired in 1972. The popular ad campaign featuring Mikey remained in regular rotation for more than 12 years and ended up as one of the longest continuously running commercial campaigns ever aired. Contents 1 Original commercial 2 Reception 3 Sequels 4 Urban legend 5 Afterward 6 References 7 Further reading 8 External links Original commercial The iconic commercial centers on three brothers eating breakfast. Before them sits a heaping bowl of Life breakfast cereal. Two of the brothers question each other about the cereal, prodding each other to try it, and noting that it is supposed to be healthy. Neither wants to try it ( `` I 'm not gon na try it -- you try it ! '' ), so they get their brother Mikey to try it ( `` Let 's get Mikey '' ), noting, `` he hates everything ''. Mikey briefly stares at the bowl. After moments of contemplation, he begins to vigorously consume the cereal before him, resulting in his brothers excitedly exclaiming, `` He likes it ! Hey, Mikey ! '' Mikey 's brothers in the commercial are Gilchrist 's actual brothers, named Michael ( the one on the left in the spot ) and Tommy. John is the middle child of seven children born to Tom and Pat Gilchrist of the Bronx. Reception The advertisement was very popular and won a Clio Award in 1974. It was also often referenced in retrospectives of classic television advertisements. For example, in 1999, TV Guide ranked it the # 10 commercial of all time. Despite the commercial 's age, a 1999 survey noted that 70 % of adults could identify the spot based on just a `` brief generic description. '' Sequels A series of `` Today 's Mikey '' ads aired in the mid-1980s, with Gilchrist reprising the character as a college student. In 1996, Quaker Oats commissioned director Rick Schulze, of Industrial Light & Magic Commercial Productions, to digitally composite a bottle of Snapple, then a subsidiary of Quaker Oats, into the original Life ad, via longtime Snapple ad agency Kirshenbaum Bond & Partners, New York. This time, however, in an ironic twist, Mikey likes some of the product 's flavors while disliking the others. Life 's ad agency, Foote, Cone & Belding in Chicago, revived the Mikey character for two campaigns in the late 1990s. In 1997, Quaker Oats initiated a nationwide search for the `` next Mikey '', settling on 4 - year - old Marli Hughes out of more than 35,000 applicants. She also appeared in a TV commercial, `` Better Life '' directed by Howard Rose, where she is seen telling her classmates how she won the contest and traveled to New York to do some TV shows. She adds that as the new Mikey she gets to eat as much Life cereal as she wants. In 1999, Quaker Oats remade the commercial word for word with an all - adult cast acting like kids. Mikey is portrayed by New York - based actor Jimmy Starace. Urban legend Years after the original commercial appeared, an urban legend spread that the actor who had played Little Mikey had died after eating an unexpectedly lethal combination of Pop Rocks ( a type of carbonated hard candy ) and a carbonated soft drink, which caused his stomach to inflate with carbon dioxide. A MythBusters exploration of the legend in detail debunked the story, adding that the show had tried to contact Gilchrist, but he did not return their calls. Afterward By 2012, John Gilchrist had become director of media sales for MSG Network. He has said that he has no clear memories of filming the commercial when he was age 3 1 / 2. References Jump up ^ Nick Ravo ( 2000 - 04 - 08 ). `` Robert Gage, 78, Art Director ; Had a Role in Well - Known Ads ''. The New York Times. Retrieved 2010 - 08 - 15. Jump up ^ Spitznagel, Eric. `` Mikey : An Investigation ''. Timothy McSweeney 's Quarterly Concern. Jump up ^ `` Press release ''. Quaker Oats. January 2000. Jump up ^ `` Mikey Life Cereal actor : John Gilchrist ''. Orlando Sentinel. December 9, 1986. Jump up ^ Slotnik, Daniel E. ( December 16, 2011 ). `` Edie Stevenson, 81 ; Wrote ' Let 's Get Mikey ' Ad ''. The New York Times. p. A32. Jump up ^ `` The 50 Greatest Commercials of All Time ''. TV Guide. July 3, 1999. Jump up ^ Forbes Consulting Group ( August 1999 ). Strategic Equity Assessment for Life Cereal. Jump up ^ Chris Nashawaty ( 1996 - 04 - 09 ). `` Coming Back to Life ''. Entertainment Weekly ( 323 ). Retrieved 2010 - 08 - 15. Jump up ^ `` Life Cereal Brand History ''. Quaker Oats. Jump up ^ Scott Hume ( 1998 - 01 - 19 ). `` Hey Mikey ! Meet Marli ''. Adweek. Retrieved 2010 - 08 - 15. Jump up ^ `` Transcript ''. CNN. January 17, 2000. Jump up ^ `` Remember Mikey ? He 's back ''. Associated Press. 2000 - 01 - 23. Retrieved 2010 - 08 - 15. Jump up ^ Best, Neal ( November 22, 2012 ). `` John Gilchrist, who played `` Mikey '' in TV ad, still likes it after all these years ``. Newsday. Retrieved 3 July 2014. Further reading Thomas Riggs, ed. ( 1999 ). `` MIKEY Campaign ''. Encyclopedia of Major Marketing Campaigns. Detroit ( etc. ) : Gale. ISBN 0 - 7876 - 3042 - X. External links John Gilchrist Jr. on IMDb The commercial can be seen here on YouTube. Discovery Channel 's Mythbusters video busting the myth. Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Little_Mikey&oldid=851347726 '' Categories : Cereal advertising characters Television commercials Fictional characters introduced in 1972 Clio Award winners 1970s television commercials Hidden categories : All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from November 2015 Talk Contents About Wikipedia Add links This page was last edited on 21 July 2018, at 17 : 33 ( UTC ). About Wikipedia

Question: who played mikey on the life cereal commercial
Answer: John Gilchrist