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The cereal was invented in 1963 by the vice-president of General Mills, John Holahan . Holahan claimed to have gotten the idea for the cereal when he happened upon some Circus Peanuts . Holahan cut up several of the marshmallow sweets and sprinkled them over Cheerios , another oat-bit cereal, and he "knew we had a winner." Lucky Charms was the first cereal to include marshmallows, and until his death in a Minnesota car accident on August 28 , 2000 , Holahan often visited schools and other speaking venues touting his creation and selling of Lucky Charms as "a lesson in creativity in Marketing ". There have been two off-shoot cereals: Chocolate Lucky Charms and '''Berry Lucky Charms'''. MARSHMALLOWS The main selling point for Lucky Charms has always been the marshmallows (or "marbits" as General Mills calls them). The first boxes of Lucky Charms cereal contained marshmallows in the shapes of pink hearts, yellow moons, orange stars, and green clovers. The lineup has changed occasionally over the years, beginning with the introduction of blue diamonds in 1975 . Purple horseshoes joined the roster in 1984 , followed by red balloons in 1989 , rainbows in 1992 , pots of gold in 1994 , leprechaun hats in 1996 , and shooting stars in 1998 . Generally as General Mills introduces new shapes, older marshmallows are phased out. The first marbits to be phased out were the yellow moons and blue diamonds, as General Mills introduced their "Pot of Gold" marshmallow. Since they already had a yellow marbit, they changed the yellow moons to blue moons and eliminated the blue diamonds. Sometimes the marbit phase outs are done quietly, other times the changes form the basis for various Commercial s and other promotional materials. The current assortment thus consists of purple horseshoes; red balloons; blue moons; orange and white shooting stars; yellow and orange pots of gold; pink, yellow, and blue rainbows; two-tone green leprechaun hats; pink hearts (the only shape to survive since the beginning); with the most recent addition being the return of the clovers in 2004 . There have also been slight cosmetic changes in the marbits, as when the orange star changed from six points to five in 1995 and when all of the colors were brightened that same year. Other marshmallows have appeared as short-term promotions, such as a whale shape in 1986 , shapes based on the Olympic Games in 1996 , and marshmallows shaped like various world landmarks in 1999 . The marshmallows also grew in size in 2004 . The Lucky Charms theme song is a product Jingle that describes the contents of the box: Hearts, stars and horseshoes! Clovers and blue moons! Pots of gold and rainbows! And the red balloons! The first three lines are generally said by the various children in the commercial, with the last line being said by Lucky the Leprechaun himself (see below). LUCKY THE LEPRECHAUN From the beginning, the Arthur Anderson from 1969 to 1992. For a brief period of time, Lucky the Leprechaun was replaced as the cereal's mascot by a bumbling, inept wizard; but Lucky was returned when sales of the cereal declined as a result. Lucky has been the star of a series of online webisodes called, "The Quest." Lucky must retrieve the eight Magic Emeralds that were stolen from his land. The webisodes can be seen at Lucky Charms.com . CONTROVERSY Lucky Charms were targeted by the Rutgers Centurion , a conservative magazine at Rutgers University, due to their offensive portrayal of Irish Americans. Campus Conservatives attempted to ban the cereal as a satirical response to campus political correctness and even put their videotaped encounter with the campus Dining Hall staff online. They were sold in Ireland in the mid- 1990s , but were eventually taken off the market. TAGLINES
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