Toucan Sam Redesign

Overview

Toucan Sam Redesign refers to the controversy surrounding Kellogg’s decision to redesign the iconic mascot of Froot Loops, Toucan Sam. In early May 2020, the cereal company released a new commercial featuring a redesigned Toucan Sam with a drastically different cartoon style, light blue head, animated mouth with teeth and a rainbow color gradient on his beak. After promoting the new mascot on Froot Loops’ social media, users online reacted with a mixture of backlash or support about the design change through online discussion and memes.

Background

The redesign for Toucan Sam was originally teased on May 2nd, 2020, via the Froot Loops Instagram^[1] account, noting the debut would be revealed at the 2020 Kids Choice Awards with the caption, “New Toucan Sam. New Froot Loops world. Debuting at #KCA2020 tonight.”

On May 5th, 2020, the Froot Loops YouTube^[2] channel uploaded a commercial titled, “Toucan Sam's Froot Loops World,” that included the redesigned Toucan Sam. In the video (featured below), Toucan Sam greets a pair of kids who are seated at a table eating breakfast, which includes a box of Froot Loops with the older mascot design. The art style is a mixture of photography and cartoon animation, and many have made note of the similarities between this new style to that of certain CalArts animation like Steven Universe. Comments, likes and dislikes have since been disabled on the video.

Developments

Online Reactions

The Froot Loops Facebook^[3] page then posted a picture of the new Toucan Sam to their feed on May 8th, 2020, with the caption, “Meet Toucan Sam | Explore the excitingly colorful and frooty Froot Loops world #ThroughTheLoop.” The image (seen below) received 7,300 likes (5,200 of which were angry and 1,000 sad), 4,800 shares and 3,400 comments.

Following this post, numerous users began commenting on the image and voicing their opinions with a mix of love and hate. One such example comes from Facebook^[4] user Javier Gokou, who posted an image (shown below) alongside the comment, “This design looks so bad! It's lazy and it looks like it came out of a CalArts style show pitch. Don't do this to Sam,” receiving nearly 800 likes.

In support, Facebook^[5] user Jonas Vestre commented, “I think this is a wonderful reincarnation of Toucan Sam. Love it or hate it, he is a good example of the cartoon art style that marks the era,” and received over 260 likes.

Once the news began trending on Twitter in the following days, several users joined in on the controversial design change through online discussion via tweets and memes. One such example was posted by Twitter^[6] user and animator CarlDoonan on May 11th, 2020. The tweet (seen below) received almost 10,000 likes and 1,200 retweets.

On May 11th, 2020, Twitter^[7] user fristdynamo tweeted an image depicting their satirical take on the redesign attempt with a creation of their own. The image (shown below) received over 1,500 likes and 200 retweets.

YouTuber^[8] Vailskibum94 uploaded a video discussing the controversy on May 12th, 2020, under the title, “Rest in Peace, Toucan Sam,” calling the new mascot an imposter and declaring Toucan Sam dead. The video (seen below) was viewed almost 120,000 times, liked 7,800 times and commented on another 3,600 times.

Search Interest

External References