The cheerful Honey Bunches of Oats factory worker who retired after appearing in TV commercials for the breakfast cereal has been brought out of retirement to pitch more products.
The Honey Bunches of Oats lady, whose real name is Diane Hunter, retired from her job at Post in 2017. But the corporation enticed her out of retirement after sales of the breakfast cereal took a nose dive.
Hunter is seen rhyming in a new TV commercial for Post which debuted on Tuesday, October 9. In the new commercial, Hunter wears her trademark red hard hat over a hair net.
The new commercial, titled “rhymes and delicious”, features Hunter and another employee rhyming about Honey Bunches of Oats, as boxes of cereal roll down a conveyer belt.
Hunter sings, “Crispy, crunchy bunches, for breakfast, brunch and lunch, to fill your bags and totes, with Honey Bunches of Oats.”
According to Ad Age, Hunter’s retirement had the company at “an important juncture” — meaning her departure led to declining sales.
Hunter began working for the company in 1976 and appeared in her first commercial in 2002.
Post chief managing officer Roxanne Bernstein told Ad Age they couldn’t compete in the marketplace because consumers had “choice overload” in the cereal aisle at supermarkets.
Additional ads that feature Hunter also show her rhyming about the breakfast cereal. Post hopes her rhymes will stick in the minds of consumers when they shop in the cereal aisle.
“This really is about multiplicity,” said Hunter Hindman, founder of advertising agency Argonaut which created the ads. “We want to really surround people with this song, with this kind of rhyme-y technique.”
