Life Cereal Revives Mikey, an Adorable Ad Icon [Video]

Mom has toothpaste in her hair, dad isn’t sufficiently caffeinated, and siblings are pillow fighting in a messy start-of-the-day scene that’s likely replicated in some form in countless American households.

With an adorable fresh-faced youngster at the center, narrating the mayhem in a catchy song, Life Cereal kicks off its first concerted marketing effort in years with the revival of an advertising icon.

The kid, it should be noted, is Mikey, a character first seen in 1972—helping to embed the catch phrase “He likes it! Hey Mikey!” into the lexicon—and later inducted into the TV Commercial Hall of Fame.

Formally titled “Three Brothers,” the original Mikey-centric spot became such a phenomenon that it ran for more than a decade, spawning parodies, shout outs, and urban myths, …