Fuel, Oil and Petrol were the original names of the three mascot characters for a certain crispy rice cereal, which, for legal reasons, cannot be named here.
In the late 1800s, shortly after fuel, oil and petrol were invented and developed into commodities, oil companies were busy developing strategies for what they referred to as “the global dependance on oil”. One company’s initial idea for infiltration of the home was to name the company’s off-shoot cereal business mascots ‘Fuel, Oil and Petrol’. The idea chimed well with company executives and the board. The idea’s owner, Heinriech Friedman, was offered an instant promotion. The company was really pleased with itself: It was not only going to get Fuel, Oil and Petrol into people’s houses; It was going to get Fuel, Oil and Petrol onto the breakfast table!
Several thousand packets of rice-based crispiness were produced and sold in the first week alone. The good customers could not get enough of the product. People loved the bright packaging of the cereal. They also loved the snapping noises of the cereal when topped with milk.
The success, however, was short-lived. It seemed that people were combining the slogan on the box that read “Enjoy any way you like!” with the names of the mascots. People, mainly children, were being admitted to hospital with large amounts of ricey cereal and motor car engine oil in their stomachs.
The company was forced to pull the mascots from the box immediately. It was several months before the slightly more helpful, onomatopoeic mascot names of ‘Snap, Crackle and Pop’ were added to the packets. They were named after the sounds the cereal made when milk was poured onto a bowl of the cereal.
As a company precaution, numerous tests, lasting several weeks, were carried out on the sounds the cereal made when topped with various grades of engine oil.