AdFreak

Three Wishes Cereal Tracked Down the Willy Wonka Cast to Test Its New Cocoa Flavor

Actors from the 1977 film approved of the chocolatey breakfast

Actors from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory — Peter Ostrum, who played Charlie Bucket, Paris Themmen, who played Mike TeaVee, and Julie Dawn Cole, who played Veruca Salt, all taste tested the cereal.Illustration: Amira Lin; Sources: Three Wishes

Debuting a new product comes with a slew of complications—even when it doesn’t happen in the midst of a pandemic. So to introduce its new cocoa flavor to consumers, organic cereal startup Three Wishes had to get creative.

When pondering how to market a flavor that co-founder Ian Wishingrad describes as truly chocolatey—the brand’s fourth flavor after honey, cinnamon and unsweetened—the first thing that popped into his mind was Willy Wonka.

Wishingrad, the host of Adweek’s I’m With the Brand and founder of creative agency Big Eyed Wish, grew up down the street from the original Wonka himself—the late Gene