"Sunny Jim" is the name of two completely unconnected characters used in advertising and product branding: (1) a cartoon character created to promote Force cereal, the first commercially successful wheat flake; (2) the name of a brand of peanut butter produced in the Seattle area. It also has been used as a form of address for men in general or to refer to those named James. Sunny Jim and Force cereal The character on boxes of Force cereal was created in the United States in 1902 by writer Minnie Maud Hanff and artist Dorothy Ficken (the mother of Fred Gwynne), initially for an advertising campaign. Rather than selling the benefits of eating wheat, which Hanff assumed customers already knew, her copy for the original advertisements told stories in verse, such as this one: Jim Dumps was a most unfriendly man, Who lived his life on the hermit plan; In his gloomy way he'd gone through life, And made the most of woe and strife; Till Force one day was served to him Since then they've called him "Sunny Jim." The advertisements featured slogans such as "Better than a Vacation" and "A Different Food for Indifferent Appetites." Other verses included: Whatever you say, wherever you've been, You can't beat the cereal, that raised Sunny Jim! and High o'er the fence leaps Sunny Jim, Force is the food that raises him This last rhyme became a familiar catchphrase. Also used was the slogan "When skies are grey and times are grim, wake up and smile with Sunny Jim", which appeared on advertising coins. The campaign was wildly successful at promoting the character of Sunny Jim. Printer's Ink stated September 17, 1902 that "No current novel or play is so universally popular. He is as well-known as President Roosevelt or J. Pierpont Morgan." However, the cereal company turned its advertising account over to a different firm, which did not approve of humor in advertising and more or less abandoned the campaign. In the United States, Force followed a convoluted path involving many corporate mergers. The last owner stopped producing the cereal in 1983. Both the cereal and Sunny Jim had greater success in the United Kingdom, where Force cereal was available until 2013, and the box still featured a picture of Sunny Jim. Sunny Jim Peanut Butter The brand of peanut butter known as Sunny Jim was manufactured in Seattle, Washington, by the