By Heather Taylor, Editor-in-Chief, PopIcon
The Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cinnamojis have long had reputations as zany characters with a voracious appetite for their own kind.
Yep, that’s right. When they’re not licking each other, they’re drenching one another in milk and chomping down. As horrific this premise might sound, it has been played off for laughs for years. The squares are covered in sweet Cinnadust crystals which makes them irresistible to breakfast fans — and one another. Because they’re such goofy characters, and there are hundreds of Cinnadusted squares in every box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, you can’t help but make allowances for their quirky behavior.
What if it turns out the Cinnamojis are very much aware of their actions? A new campaign “Must Cinnadust” from The Martin Agency and Passion Productions imagines an alternate breakfast universe filled with sinister cereal-on-cereal crime.
“Must Cinnadust”
PopIcon tracked down the six stop-motion animated “Must Cinnadust” spots on Vimeo and watched them all.
Most of the ads get straight to the point. Spoons, not knives, are used to take care of the Cinnamojis. One darkly humorous spot, “Plastic Sheet” shows a Cinnamoji rolling out plastic wrap to keep all the crumbs in place when it’s time to clean up the evidence. It is attention paid to details like these that elevate the campaign to receive a shout-out among the many unhinged brand mascot moments of 2025.
We do get a taste as to why the Cinnamoji are choosing to eat Cinnamon Toast Crunch in “Fridge.” A Cinnamoji who lives in a cereal box stylized apartment expands on their behavior in a voiceover.
The Cinnamoji knows what they are doing is wrong. Their refrigerator speaks volumes of the addiction with broken pieces of cinnamon squares stuffed into jars on every shelf. Their parents have seemingly cut them off via a message on a postcard. But with every bite of Cinnadust-packed flavor, the Cinnamoji knows and accepts they would do it all over again.
Here’s a side note worth exploring in the future: if the parents are disappointed in this behavior, does this mean boomer, or Gen X, Cinnamojis don’t eat one another? Or is this learned behavior that millennial/Gen Z Cinnamojis have embraced?
About the Author
Heather Taylor is the senior writer and editor-in-chief of PopIcon, Advertising Week’s blog about brand mascots. Got a pitch on brand mascots or want to wax nostalgic about characters? Drop her a line at howveryheather@gmail.com.
