Trickster gods and breakfast cereal

The Trix Rabbit is probably the most striking example of a cereal trickster who closely follows the mythic conventions of the North American tricksters in particular. The plot of his 30-second tales follows a mind-numbingly predictable sequence. The Rabbit observes some kids eating Trix cereal, and decides to disguise himself in order to get some too. At first his plan appears to succeed, but then his manic enthusiasm for the fruit-flavor properties of the cereal cause him to convulse in such a way that his disguise is thrown off and the trick revealed. The kids take the cereal away from him and pronounce the ritual condemnation mantra: “Silly Rabbit. Trix are for kids.”

In his basic form, the Trix Rabbit resembles mythical trickster figures in that he is an anthropomorphized animal, like the hare trickster Wakjunkaga. He exhibits the insatiable hunger typical of Wakjunkaga, but not for foods typically associated with rabbits. He desires only the Trix brand breakfast cereal, and is willing to cheat and deceive in order to get it. In the early days of Trix, the variations on the specific disguise that the Rabbit adopted were still closely identified with the plot premise: He was attempting to appear as something other than a rabbit, so a little old lady or astronaut disguise would do. In more recent years the disguises have begun to take on the form of whatever the advertisers perceive as popular with kids at the time, so in the 1980s the Rabbit disguised himself as a breakdancer, and, most recently, a karaoke singer. In any case, the Rabbit is using these disguises, to appear more human than rabbit, which emphasizes the way in which the Trix Rabbit most closely corresponds to the archetypal Radin/Jung trickster.

Source: Thomas Green, “Tricksters and the Marketing of Breakfast Cereals,” J. of Popular Culture 40/1 (2007): 49-68 (doi:10.1111/j.1540-5931.2007.00353.x).