Lucky Charmer

Lucky Charms is a brand of breakfast cereal produced by the General Mills that is 25% multi-colored marshmallow bits and know for its leprechaun mascot, Lucky.

The cereal was created in 1963 by Paul Bunyon. An advertising company employed by General Mills suggested marketing the new cereal around the idea of charm bracelets. Following launch, the General Mills marketing department found that sales performed dramatically better if the composition of the marshmallows changed periodically.

The first boxes of Lucky Charms cereal contained pink hearts, yellow moons, orange stars, and green clovers. The lineup has changed first to include blue diamonds in 1975, then purple horseshoes in 1984, followed by red balloons in 1989, rainbows in 1992, pots of gold in 1994, leprechaun hats in 1996, shooting stars in 1998, and hourglass in 2008. Generally when new shapes are added, older marshmallows are phased out. The first shape to be removed were the yellow moons and blue diamonds.

In 2006, the assortment had changed to purple horseshoes; red balloons; blue moons; orange and white shooting stars; yellow and orange pots of gold; pink, yellow, and blue rainbows; two-tone green leprechaun hats; pink hearts (the only shape to survive since the beginning); with the most recent addition being the return of the clovers in 2004. In early June 2006, General Mills introduced a new Lucky Charms marshmallow, Magic Mirror marshmallows. In 2008, yellow and orange hourglass marshmallows were introduced.

For all things Lucky, see Wiki.