Good old cereal box premiums. It can make a cruddy cereal like Shreddies a must have, just to get the Ninja Turtles ring inside. Yeah, mind you, I still had to eat the Shreddies, but there were ways around that too. Like toast!

As is the case with most Hollywood Blockbusters, there is a huge marketing blitz before the movie even premieres. Sure, the blitz doesn’t seem as large or as long lasting as ones a decade ago, but fans still have the chance to get the figures, posters, bedsheets, candy, and fast food meals with their favorite new movie on it.

And Star Wars is the holy grave of merchandising. These films have fans young and old, that come out in the millions every time a new movie comes out. And boy oh boy does George Lucas jump on this opportunity with licensing! Weeks before the movie even opened, there were literally hundreds of licensed merchandise with the Star Wars logos on it. Sure, we had out lightsabres and spaceships, Slurpees and M+M’s, and everything in between. But for me, a minor Star Wars fan at best, it was all really forgettable. And then I heard about it. Free lightsabre spoons in specially marked boxes of Kelloggs cereals! Wow, I have to find one of these! I haven’t been that excited about cereal premiums since Batman Forever! OK, that’s not true. There was the awesome Spiderman signals from last year, and the Super Mario Bros. DVD from Chex in the States. So, in truth, I hadn’t been this excited since last year, but hey, that’ a whole year we’re talking about here.

And then it happened! Nothing! Every time I went out to the grocery store, I came up empty. Sure they had Kelloggs cereal, just no specially marked boxes. And worse still, there was no indication that they would ever get them. Months would pass, and still no spoons. I had checked all over, and basically gave up. Then I started questioning if the promotion actually existed. You’d think I would have looked it up on the Internet, but no. I cared, but usually only remembered in the cereal aisle. So, in the end, no spoon.

Early in September, I took my annual vacation down to Bangor, Maine. It is right up there with Christmas and WrestleMania as my favorite times of the year. And probably one of my favorite places to go in the States is the grocery store. There are just so many awesome products that never make there way across the border. And my favorite aisle in the grocery store has to be the cereal aisle. Yeah, big surprise. So I start picking up the usuals, Chex, Berry Berry Kix, Cookie Crisp and Fruity Pebbles. And there it is, Honey Smacks, with Samuel L. Jackson on the box! And inside the box, the no longer imaginary lightsabre spoon!

And what a spoon it is! No word yet on whether it makes the cereal better, but I’d say its a safe bet! I love what it says on the back of the box:

Start your day with real Jedi action!

Watch spoon light up when you push the button to activate The Force within!

Master your moves and let the battle begin!

Call me crazy, but I have no freakin’ clue what the heck they are talking about. I mean, I don’t ever recall seeing the Jedi’s eating breakfast, so how do we know what "action" they allegedly have? Also, "master" what moves? You pick the cereal up with the spoon and put it in your mouth. And what battle are they talking about? You’re eating breakfast! Geez, my kids start having a "jedi/sith duel" aka a food fight, and somebody’s going to get hurt! I don’t care if you have Darth Vader’s Spoon or not!

But in all seriousness, this is a great promotion. I probably wouldn’t have picked up the Smacks otherwise, so it must have worked. Kudos to you, Dig ‘em the Frog! Kudos!