And now a word from our sponsors (Part Two) - Tasty Bites

Having covered the nearly-was Dracula/Reebok tie-in of Drac’s Night Out last time, I wanted to move from footwear to food for our latest dive into the world of the Count’s ventures into marketing.

It's a pretty hot summer as I write this, so an ice lolly naturally goes down well – so why not a Dracula iced treat? This one would turn your tongue red – naturally – and was made with a soft, gooey centre to it. Children of the 70s and 80s would have merrily bitten into this one, though we have recently seen a revival of the vampire-based lolly for a whole new generation.

Of course, Hallowe’en is a time when Stoker’s creation is heavily on our minds, and hordes of caped minions hit our streets to trick or treat. And each year we see swathes of gummy teeth and Dracula-branded treats – probably an unexpected consequence of his great novel on Bram’s part…

But those two are just the aperitif for surely the most famous Dracula-inspired food mascot – Count Alfred Chocula. Launched in the US in 1971 with the catchphrase ‘I want to eat your cereal!’, the over-the-top character was made famous with a series of adverts featuring an array of comic banter with his fellow cereal monsters Franken Berry and Boo Berry.

With that said, Franken Berry did have something of a false start, as it was discovered the cereal contained an indigestible pigment which had the shocking effect of turning your bowel movements pink. Politely known as ‘Franken Berry Stool’, this led to both Chocula and Franken Berry being made to a new recipe from 1972.

However, this wouldn’t stop this monster line-up of cereals from going from strength to strength, with Boo Berry, Frute Brute, Fruit Yummy Mummy and Carmella Creeper eventually joining the fold (Universal eat your heart out). We even have a breakfast-based Monster Mash, featuring a mix of all the characters in your bowl.

Throughout the 70s the cereals were renowned for their many giveaways, which children of my generation will gleefully recall being an added bonus to find at the bottom of the box. One of the strangest in this case was a 1979 set of flexi-discs – a lost piece of technology that is a close cousin to vinyl records – called ‘The Monsters Go Disco’, ‘Count Chocula Goes to Hollywood’ and ‘Monster Adventures in Outer Space’.

If you want to check those out they are available on Youtube – each is a mini audio story in its own right and a true curio of the time…

The Monsters Go DiscoCount Chocula Goes to HollywoodMonster Adventures in Outer Space

These days you might not find this monstrous line-up on supermarket shelves all year round, but out in the US each Hallowe’en season we see Count Chocula and his monstrous friends rise from the dead once again. With more than 50 years of iconic adverts, prizes, products and media tie-ins, Chocula might not have quite the legacy of Dracula, but to multiple generations of kids, it was just as integral a part of their childhoods.

Sadly, we have missed out on Chocula’s cereal-based antics elsewhere in the world, but his monstrous reputation in North America remains more than intact.

Next time around we’ll be concluding our series with a look at some of Dracula’s most famous adverts – and I suspect the Count will be rolling in his coffin at some of these…