Making the Band with Rice Krispies’ Snap, Crackle, and Pop

Once the milk hits the cereal, there’s a unique melody found in every bowl of Rice Krispies. But what if we turned that crunchy beat up to eleven? What if the Rice Krispies brand mascots — Snap, Crackle, and Pop — sang to you during breakfast?

Vibin’

Vibin’, a commercial spot from Kellogg’s Rice Krispies that debuted in 2020, features Snap, Crackle, and Pop as the hottest new band this side of the breakfast table. Snap is the DJ, mixing up the beat. Pop’s on drums as the trio’s resident drummer. And Crackle is enthusiastically strumming an electric guitar.

Their song is already an earworm in the making. It celebrates the delicious sound, and taste, of Rice Krispies. All you need to do is press play for a happy start to your day!

Making the Rice Krispies Band

Fans of the cereal may not realize this, but Vibin’ is the first Rice Krispies kid spot in more than 20 years for the brand! The creative team at Leo Burnett, with creative lead Associate Creative Director Deni Ambrose and Associate Creative Director Christy Hale, helped turn Snap, Crackle, and Pop into a band.

We spoke with Brant Wheaton, Marketing Director of Kellogg’s U.S. ready-to-eat cereal segment about turning the iconic Rice Krispies trio into a band, figuring out which brand mascot plays what instrument, and where you can listen to the full-length version of Vibin’ online.

How did you decide on a commercial that turns the mascots into a band? Were there other backup ideas for this campaign that weren’t used?

We knew we wanted to turn to music right away. We’ve got the only cereal that talks. Why not make it sing?

So, we had Snap, Crackle, and Pop pull their unique sounds together to form a band and bring the magic of sound to every kid’s breakfast table. However, the band doesn’t want to become famous for fame’s sake. Their core role is to inspire and feed kids’ love for music.

I love how the kitchen starts off black and white and then fills with color (and sound). How did you decide which brand mascot would play which instrument or assume a certain musical role?

A lot of thought went into modernizing Snap, Crackle, and Pop — and their positions in the band emerged pretty naturally once we had their personalities nailed down.

Snap has always been the natural leader of the crew, so we knew right away that he would be our MC. Crackle is sort of the laidback, musical genius of the bunch. We put him on guitar. And Pop had the qualities of a percussionist right in his name, so he went behind the drum set.

There is actually a fourth member of the band: the audience! We wanted the viewer to feel like the lead single alongside Snap, Crackle, and Pop, so we very purposefully didn’t give them any vocal solos.

Vibin’ is so catchy! Who wrote the lyrics and composed the music? And who sings the full-length song?

The lyrics, composition, and vocals come from the amazing team at Walker. We turned to them to help us create something that was so catchy, you’d be singing it for days — and they delivered! We’re still singing it almost a year later.

Vibin’ was released in 2020. Were there any challenges in animating the spot while working remote due to COVID-19 or was the process fairly seamless?

We partnered with Brand New School at the very beginning of the pandemic and have been working remotely alongside them ever since. To say the process has been seamless would be a huge understatement. Brand New School has really perfected the art of making art from afar.

Are there any fun behind-the-scenes stories, or trivia, you can share about what it was like to work on Vibin’?

We’ve received a lot of suggestions for instruments the band should play next. Two of the most requested are a trumpet and a tuba.

Who knows? Maybe there’s a marching band moment in the band’s future!

Listen to Vibin’ Now!

Want to listen to the full-length Vibin’ track? Listen in to the track on Apple Music here!