Google UK Ships Pre-Ordered Pixel Phones In Cereal Boxes

Google’s changed a lot over the years. It used to be a cutting-edge tech company with big talent and ambitious, world-changing goals. And yet, they still retained that chill, catch-you-at-burning-man, vibe, while also siphoning off all of your data. 

But he's super cool, really. Even if he dropped “don’t be evil” as his motto, and has decided to stop code naming major Android releases after desserts, in part due to global marketing concerns, which sounds like the most corporate sell-out reason to stop doing something nerd-cool ever. 

Fortunately, they haven't extinguished the flame for playful pranks and geek fun, as the folks at Google UK decided to surprise 2,000 Pixel 4 pre-order customers by packaging their new phone in a cereal box, recalling one of those simple moments of elation many kids used to experience — digging into a box of cereal to excavate the toy buried underneath a pile of vitamins, minerals, and sugar-fortified breakfast bits, although the cereal pieces inside are loop-shaped and are included with marshmallow bits adorned with Google’s “G” logo. Influencers taking unboxing pics for the ‘Gram have about a bowl’s worth of cereal to work with, which is disappointing because if you're going to give out a Trix knockoff, you need to come correct with a whole box.

The box comes styled in typical breakfast cereal fashion, with a colorful bowl of square bits, shaped to resemble screen pixels. The phone itself is called out as being “included free” in the box, although there’s more phone than actual cereal inside. The box makes playful use of Google’s bold color palette, another vestige of their more whimsical past.

This isn’t the only food-based promotion the teams at Google are using to hype their new phone. The tech giant also teamed up with Domino’s to deliver Pixel 4 phones housed inside of pizza boxes to social media influencers and cell phone salespeople.