The Frosties Kid Is Dead

Status: Urban Legend
image A recent ad for Kellogg's Frosted Flakes shows a blond-haired kid dancing around singing "They're going to taste great!" I think this is a British ad. At least, I've never seen it here in America. And all the references to it I've found occur in the British press. For instance, David Whitehouse writes in the Guardian:
Pity the poor Kellogg's marketing department... all they wanted to do was make an advert in which a chirpy young scamp would skip his way through the streets of a suburban town attracting other children like a Pied Piper with a silly ditty about his breakfast. So, they set out to hire an angelic young choirboy with a voice so beautiful it could shatter the beaks of songbirds. Then disaster struck. It appears that, on the way to the shoot, this choirboy's balls dropped with quite monstrous results. They wanted Aled Jones, but they got Mick Jones. And what we're left with is a jingle being sung by a boy at the exact moment his voice breaks, in a tone so monotonous it appears to be operating at a frequency which toys with people's bowels. It is, quite simply, the worst soundtrack to an advertisement ever. His voice is so oppressively dull that prolonged listening is like having every orifice systematically packed full of wet bread by a politician with no facial features.
Evidently this is the kind of ad that people love to hate. And this dislike has inspired a rumor that the kid in the ad is dead. (Google 'Frosties Kid' and you pull up page after page of rumors of his death.) There are two versions of the rumor:

1) That the kid committed suicide on account of the bullying he received since the ad aired.
2) That the kid was a cancer patient whose dying wish was to star in a Frosties ad.

I don't know who the Frosties Kid is in real life. So I can't prove that he's alive. But there's absolutely no evidence to support the claim that he's dead. Plus, the 'Frosties Kid Is Dead' rumor seems to be a new variation of the 'Death of Little Mikey' rumor (which alleged that Mikey, of the Life Cereal commercials, died after eating Pop Rocks). So I think it's safe to assume that the Frosties Kid is still alive. (Thanks to Dave Tolomy for telling me about the rumor.)

Update: As Dead-Eric noted in the comments, Scott Mills of BBC Radio 1 recently discussed the 'Frosties Kid Is Dead' rumor on his show. Mills received the following official statement from Kelloggs about the rumor:
"The current advertisement has been well received by the vast majority of our customers. We would also like to take this opportunity to confirm that the lead boy within the advertisement is well and continues to live in his native South Africa."
You can listen to an mp3 clip of this portion of the Scott Mills show here.

Advertising Death Urban Legends

Posted on Thu Jul 06, 2006



Comments

It's a simple cereal advert and i can't believe most people have been so immature at sending the boy such hideous comments.
Posted by dave  on  Mon Nov 12, 2007  at  02:10 PM
He is not dead at all...he is in fact now starring in a south african soap and is one of the main teenagers in this soap...these rumours should be put to rest as can you imagine seeing how people act about your death if you're only a teenager

goodbye xxx
Posted by anon  on  Sat Jan 19, 2008  at  01:59 PM
I heard that he put two pencils up his nose, and slammed his head off a desk
Posted by Sergei  on  Tue Apr 29, 2008  at  09:04 AM
%-P I went for the audition and he beat me to it i hope hes drowned in a bowl of milk
Posted by Mitchell Toms  on  Thu Mar 26, 2009  at  05:41 AM
fuck forstie boy kid i like beans n mash
Posted by charlie courtenay  on  Thu Mar 26, 2009  at  05:42 AM
I found him (Sven Ruygrok) on facebook and asked him is he the frostie advert kid. Still waiting for a reply.
Posted by Colum Rogers  on  Wed May 20, 2009  at  06:48 PM
in school the rumors are that he stuck a pencil up his nose and hit is head off the desk to kill himself... lol
Posted by CH  on  Tue Oct 06, 2009  at  10:40 AM
i hope he is dead inside
Posted by Earth Worm  on  Tue Oct 13, 2009  at  12:03 AM
i heard some one killed him xD.
Posted by Rofl at gay kid  on  Thu Dec 31, 2009  at  04:52 PM
Guys he didn't die

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article62049.ece

see!
Though all the hate mail is really getting on my nerves, he's just a kid! jeeez! all this is so harsh on him! "I hope he dies" and whatnot, it was just one little advert, there's loads of annoying adverts on tv! Just leave the boy to live in peace, because if he died and I was joining in on the hate mail I'd know for sure I would be ashamed for contributing to a young chaps death
Posted by Kay  on  Fri Aug 20, 2010  at  08:23 AM
Ok, so my friend knew this kid because she's from england. What had happened was this kid was severly bullied for being a "fag" and in class one day he went up and sharpened 2 pencils in front of the class, went back to sit down and stuck the pencils in his nose and smashed his head on the desk and nobody noticed for 15 minutes.
Posted by Savannah  on  Mon Jan 24, 2011  at  08:40 PM
You guys are absolute morons.
Firstly, he's in 'Spud' - a new movie based on the book. Google it.
Secondly, he is presently acting in a TV series called 'Beaver Falls', WITH ME. I SPOKE TO HIM YESTERDAY.
MY FUCKING GOSH, have you got no lives?
He's a normal human being, and a great actor.
For fuck's sake, you guys are embarrassing.
Rumours that he's 'dead'; give me a break. It was one advert.
HE'S SOUTH AFRICAN, BY THE WAY.
And he is currently becoming rather famous.
Now shut up with all your bull shit; you're embarrassing yourselves.
Posted by Georgia  on  Wed Feb 16, 2011  at  05:55 PM
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