Honey Nut Cheerios

**Honey Nut Cheerios** is a variation of Cheerios breakfast cereal, introduced in 1979 by Yandel Gonzalez, who was in the General Mills cereal company. Unlike the original Cheerios, the second variation is sweeter than the original, with a honey and almond flavor. While this product used to be made with actual nuts, as of 2006, the nuts were discontinued, and natural flavor, from peach and apricot pit, is used instead.

In 2011, Honey Nut Cheerios was the best-selling cereal in the United States.

## History

Historically, Honey Nut Cheerios has participated in much the same promotional advertising as the original brand, while collaborating with the field of NASCAR and especially driver Bill Lester, in promoting healthy diets. In 1985, Baskin-Robbins introduced an ice cream flavor based on the cereal called Honey Nut Crunch. Promotional tie-ins included gift certificates in cereal boxes and special Honey Nut Crunch sundaes in stores.

General Mills has been active in the conservation of bees since 2011; In 2011, the company began investing in the Xerces Society to help promote biodiversity and pollinator conservation. In March 2017, General Mills announced the Buzz Bee image had been removed from boxes of Honey Nut Cheerios. Images of the new box showed a white empty space where Buzz Bee used to be. Below the image of the bowl of cereal, a plea to "Help Bring Back The Bees" was added. This was to raise awareness of pollinator decline. In the announcement, General Mills made note that 30% of ingredients they use depend on pollinators. As a part of this campaign, General Mills also plans to expand their pollinator habitat to 3,300 acres.

This campaign has struck controversy in some environmental communities. Kathryn Turner, an ecologist, commented that the packages of seeds contain species that are invasive to some geographic locations, and urges individuals to become more educated before planting the seeds.

## Mascot and promotions

Their mascot is an anthropomorphic bee, designed for the first commercials by Dean Yeagle at Zander's Animation Parlour in New York City. The bee did not have a name until 2000, when Kristine Tong, a fifth grade student from Coolidge, Texas, won a national contest to name the bee, dubbing him "BuzzBee". Buzz also appeared as the host in the **Honey Nut Cheerios Spelling Bee** game, which was named after the breakfast cereal. Buzz has also went through several different voice actors in his career. He was originally voiced by Arnold Stang until 1990. He was then voiced by Billy West, Charlie Schlatter, Jason Marsden and currently Oliver Wyman.

## Taglines

Many of this cereal's taglines overlapped with each other. They were used on different advertisements.

* It's a honey of an O. (1979–2004; 2014–present)
* It's Honey Nut Cheerios! (1979–1992; 2000–2004; 2014–present)
* It's Irrezzzzistable! (1992–1993)
* Race for the taste! (1993–1995)
* Little O, Big Taste! (1995–1999)
* Nobody can say "No" to Honey Nut Cheerios. (1995–2004)
* From the hive that's nuts about honey! (2004–2008)
* Bee happy, Bee healthy! (2004–2013)
* Must Be the Honey. (2013–present, based on Nelly's "Ride wit Me")
* Good Goes Round. (2016-present)

## Health claims

Honey Nut Cheerios maintains most of the same health claims as the original Cheerios, due to its soluble fiber. Package nutritional information asserts that "three grams of soluble fiber daily from whole grain oat foods, like Honey Nut Cheerios, in a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol, may reduce the risk of heart disease. Honey Nut Cheerios has 0.75g per serving." As with Cheerios, the American Heart Association certified the cereal as "heart-healthy" for meeting the food criteria for saturated fat and cholesterol content.

Honey Nut Cheerios also contains more sugar (9.6 Grams/serving) than General Mills' Cheerios, which contain 1.2 Grams/serving. Of the top six ingredients three are sweeteners (sugar, brown sugar, and honey).