{"id":21035,"date":"2016-05-20T15:41:00","date_gmt":"2016-05-20T19:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/advertisingweek.com\/aw360\/?p=21035"},"modified":"2026-10-16T15:43:54","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T19:43:54","slug":"throwback-quisp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/advertisingweek.com\/aw360\/news\/throwback-quisp\/21035\/","title":{"rendered":"Throwback: Quisp"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\u201cLadies and gentlemen, before your very eyes the Quaker Oats Company will now introduce two new cereals!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

In 1965, Quaker Oats created Quisp and Quake, two new corn-based breakfast cereals that differed only where their cereal shape and brand mascots were concerned. Quake<\/a> advertised their cereal with a miner-themed superhero (voiced by William Conrad, who narrated Rocky and Bullwinkle<\/em>) that wore a cape with a yellow hard hat. He advocated a \u201cpower cereal\u201d with sweetness and vitamins hailing all the way from the Earth\u2019s core.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it was the pink alien that Quisp used as their brand mascot that stands out with fans as a beloved cereal icon. Voiced by Daws Butler, infamous for his Hanna-Barbera roster of animated characters including Yogi Bear and Huckleberry Hound, the Quisp alien came equipped with a propeller on top of his head to easily fly around. Quisp was marketed as the cereal from outer space where it was \u201cthe biggest selling cereal from Saturn to Alpha Centauri.\u201d Much like Quake, Quisp came with plenty of sugary sweetness and vitamins, but also promised a \u201cquazy\u201d amount of energy after consuming a bowlful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The truly \u201cquazy\u201d thing about Quisp was that the mascot<\/a> was created before the cereal existed. Prior to creating the hit animated series Rocky and Bullwinkle<\/em>, Jay Ward and Bill Scott worked together in cereal advertising. (One brand icon Ward created in 1963 still endures today \u2013 none other than Horatio Magellan Crunch AKA Cap\u2019n Crunch<\/a>.) Quaker reached out to Ward and Scott to create characters that cereal brands could be built upon<\/a> and Quisp and Quake were born.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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