'He Likes It!' — The '70s Cereal Commercial Gen X Grew Up Watching

If you yell "HE LIKES IT!" at someone who grew up in the '70s and '80s, chances are they'll respond with a "HEY MIKEY!" without missing a beat. A good commercial can increase sales; a great one is memorable, but the very best ones become a part of pop culture (not because the ads are bizarre but because they connect). One example from the '70s that falls into the third category is Life Cereal's 30-second advertisement featuring Mikey, a young boy who is a fussy eater. The ad ran for over a decade, and the boy who played Mikey went on to become one of America's most recognizable child actors.

The commercial opens with Mikey's two older brothers discussing who would try the new "healthy" cereal that had made it to the breakfast table. In a move straight out of the elder-sibling playbook, they decide their younger brother Mikey should be the guinea pig. They're convinced he'll hate it — because "he hates everything!" — but much to their surprise, little Mikey digs into the bowl. "He likes it! Hey Mikey!" the brothers exclaim. 

When it launched in 1961, Life Cereal's checkered multigrain squares were advertised as a high-protein alternative at a time when kids grew up eating a lot of sugary cereals, from Kellogg's Frosted Flakes to Trix, Apple Jacks, and Cap'n Crunch. In this landscape, Life pitched its cereal as tasty and healthy. It had sweet "sugar crystals" inside each toasty bite. But it also had "the most useful protein ever in a ready-to-eat cereal" (via Mr. Breakfast). The Mikey commercial didn't change this positioning; it just made the point in an emphatic, unforgettable way.

Today, our social media feeds are filled with products hand-picked for us by algorithms. But in its heyday, advertising wasn't just about triggering impulse purchases; it was about creating long-lasting connections. John Gilchrist and his real-life brothers Michael and Tommy certainly did that in the Mikey commercial. "I went grocery shopping at Walmart with my kid over the weekend and saw a box of LIFE and said, 'Hey Mikey, I think he likes it.' My kid looked at me confused. I ended up buying a box. He likes the cereal though," one fan wrote on Reddit.

Life Cereal ran the ad from 1972 to 1986. It's one of the longest continuously running ads in television history and regularly features on lists of great commercials. In fact, Mikey — the kid who hated everything — became so well-loved that Life Cereal kept bringing the character back, even as recently as 2024. Leaning into the past isn't unique to Life. From Starbucks to Red Lobster, many restaurant chains bet on nostalgia to lure customers as well.

The strategy seems to work, and Life Cereal still has a die-hard following. One customer on Reddit described it as "Not too sweet. Not too bland. Just right," while another responded, writing, "Yeah it's perfect the way it is, plenty of flavor with[out] being too sweet." Life Cereal was once the ninth-largest cereal brand, according to a 2018 Kiplinger report, having made $177.5 million by selling 58.1 million boxes of cereal. 

While Mikey has remained forever young, John Gilchrist has spent his life oscillating between wearing his fame lightly and retreating away from the limelight. Five years after the commercial hit the screens, in July 1977, The Washington Post ran a feature on television's most famous kids. Unsurprisingly, Gilchrist made the cut, and the interview gives glimpses of the kind of fame he had to deal with. "When we went to Disney World, people got more excited at seeing 'Mikey' than they did about Disney World. It happens so often," his mother was quoted as saying. Gilchrist wasn't the only one affected. According to one Redditor, the ad affected all kids named Mike in different ways: "As a Mike born in the 70s, I used to hate this with a passion. Now I embrace it," they wrote.

While his parents tried to shield him from the limelight, the headlines continued to follow Gilchrist, most notably when a rumor spread that he had died after consuming Pop Rocks and Coca-Cola, causing his stomach to explode (did no one check the actual science behind how Pop Rocks candy works?) In the mid-'80s, Gilchrist also revisited the role that gained him fame, letting television viewers know that Mikey had gone to college and was still loving Life.

Remember Mikey From the "Life" Cereal Commercial? Here He is Today.

His Name is John Gilchrist and Resides in New York.

FUN FACT: The Brothers Appearing on the Cereal Commercial Were His Actual Brothers. #JohnGilchrist #Life #Cereal #Commercial #Childstar #TV pic.twitter.com/RGFRwiu21G

— 80sThen80sNow (@80sThen80sNow) June 28, 2020

Gilchrist went on to have a successful career in ad sales. He has worked in radio, for ESPN, and has been the Director of Media Sales at Madison Square Garden for nearly two decades — as strong an indication as any that he loves his work as much as he loved Life Cereal all those decades ago.