I haven't gotten any cereal boxes with toys in a very long time but Back when I was younger I was always much more eager to purchase products that did have small toys in them. Here in my country they even used to offer toys with some of our snack products like chips. Unfortunately the trend gradually decreased more and more and nowadays I don't find any of those types of promos anymore which is too bad because even now as an adult I'd still definitely be more enthused to buy a product that has a small prize inside.
I can only assume that it is different in other countries than it is in the UK? Because the last few years, or possibly even longer, I have not been shopping and seen any cereal boxes that advertise having a freebie toy within the box. Maybe I just haven't noticed, and there still are, or maybe it is just different in different countries.
I remember in the 2000s, there were CD-ROM video game in cereal boxes. That's how I discovered the game Crazy Taxi from SEGA and even 15 years later, I still love this game so much! It makes me happy every time I think because when you opened the cereal box, it seemed to have won a treasure hunt, it was too funny. Anyway, it uses the principle of Kinder Surprises and we all know that children love discovering toys after had the pleasure of eating chocolate or their favorite cereal =)
I thought companies stop putting toys into cereal until, I recently went to the grocery store and my daughter pointed out a box of cereal that she wanted because it came with a toy. With that being said, I would buy cereal based on if it had a toy in it or not. At the same time it will depend on the cereal and the type of toy that comes with it because I feel like you are getting a nice little deal. My daughter gets cereal and a free toy as a bonus.
My youngest son loves the McDonald Happy Meal toys and Kinder Surprise chocolate eggs with a toy inside. It is his sole purpose for eating at McDonalds. He enjoys the chicken nuggets but LOVES getting the toy. I'm glad they took the toys out of cereals, it's all marketing and I find it's can be a fight to get kids to have the healthier cereals.
I live in the UK and cereals here haven't done this for years. I wouldn't buy cereal based on a toy or game inside though. They are usually just plastic junk that will end up broken or I will stand on when left on the floor. I buy the stores own brand cereals because I am on a budget. I don't eat cereals myself, but my four children usually have cereal for breakfast or snacks. They might try to pressure me to buy cereals with toys in if they saw them. Some cereals in the UK have promotions where you need to collect tokens off the back for, but you need to spend an extortionate amount on the top brand cereals before you have collected enough to claim your 'free' gift.
I don't buy them because they come with toys but it's nice that they do. It's probably a marketing scheme so people will keep coming back to the cereals for their kids. We just got in a cereal box, a piece of chalk and a ball for foursquare. That was different and neat! And we also got a kids plastic spoon and the handle is also a straw. So at least they put really unique toys in there that kids can actually use.
Of course I would! Especially if the child insists for me to buy those "special" kind of cereals instead of the normal ones. However I wouldn't make them a priority just because they offer free toys. This reminded me of my younger years though. I always asked my dad to buy me cereals that have free toys in their boxes even if I disliked eating cereals back then. Lol!
