What happened to the Frosties kid was the talk of the British primary school playground in the early 2000s.
Children up down and the country had all seen the cereal brand’s now infamous TV advert, released in 2006, which saw a young lad with spiked-up blonde hair singing a slightly grating jingle.
Bounding out of bed to a Wallace and Gromit-style mechanised machine pouring him a bowl of the sugary corn flakes, he sung: ‘They’re going to taste great, they’re going to taste great, I can hear the sound of Frosties hitting my plate.’
They offer fun for all the family, he rhymes – beloved by ‘ladies who wait’ and have ‘personalised number plates’, ‘your teenage brother who’s out on a date’, ‘those who live in Aus, mate’ or ‘the Empire State’, ‘a bloke in a crate’ and a ‘pi-rate’.
But in the years after the Kellogg’s commercial aired, the actor was relentlessly bullied online for the slightly irritating ad – and a series of similarly vitriolic rumours began circulating about him.
No, he did not take his own life by sticking a pencil up his nose or take the job as his dying wish or flee to ‘Aus, mate’, contrary to playground urban legend – South African actor Sven Ruygrok is thankfully very much still around and not doing what you might expect.
What happened to the Frosties kid (pictured) was the talk of the British primary school playground in the early 2000s
Children up down and the country had all seen the cereal brand’s now infamous TV advert (pictured), released in 2006, which saw a young lad with spiked-up blonde hair singing a slightly grating jingle
No, he did not take his own life or flee to ‘Aus, mate’, contrary to playground urban legend – South African actor Sven Ruygrok (pictured earlier this year) is thankfully very much still around
Auditioning aged 14, the now 33-year-old beat out a huge crowd of other young lads to get his role in the British TV ad hall of fame.
But the falsely chirpy tone of his little ditty, plus the exaggerated song and dance he did alongside it, saw the lad endlessly abused on the internet, even receiving death threats.
Sven hit back at the time, telling the Sun: ‘Can’t these fools distinguish between me and a character in an ad?’
And even he has previously dubbed the refrain ‘that annoying jingle’: ‘It was so irritating hearing the jingle over and over. After five days, I was going up the wall.
‘But I switched off how I felt about it and got on with how the director was asking me to portray the character. I did that to the best of my ability.’
But it was not until 2016 that the actor’s comments fully made sense – when he admitted to Vice the singing voice that gave the ad its particularly jarring edge was not even his.
He was instead lip-syncing to a voiceover recorded months before – which makes much more sense, given the absence of his own South African twang in the ad.
Despite his frustrated clapback at the time, he said with more distance from filming that the bitter online criticism of him did not bother him too much: ‘I was 14, I wanted to be outside and play.
Auditioning aged 14, the now 33-year-old beat out a huge crowd of other young lads to get his role in the British TV ad hall of fame
Bounding out of bed to a Wallace and Gromit-style mechanised machine pouring him a bowl of the sugary corn flakes, he sung: ‘They’re going to taste great, they’re going to taste great, I can hear the sound of Frosties hitting my plate’. Pictured: The Frosties advert
They offer fun for all the family, he rhymes – beloved by ‘ladies who wait’ and have ‘personalised number plates’, ‘your teenage brother who’s out on a date’, ‘those who live in Aus, mate’ or ‘the Empire State’, ‘a bloke in a crate’ and a ‘pi-rate’. Pictured: The Frosties advert
But the falsely chirpy tone of his little ditty, plus the exaggerated song and dance he did alongside it, saw the lad endlessly abused on the internet, even receiving death threats
In the years after the Kellogg’s commercial (pictured) aired, the actor was relentlessly bullied online for the slightly irritating ad – and a series of similarly vitriolic rumours began circulating about him
‘I was more concerned about pimples and hormones ruining my life than a commercial.’
It was actually his parents who were more affected by it: ‘What would you do as a parent if your child’s name was being thrown around the internet like a rag doll under a truck by people who have never met them?’
Some complaints were more harmless, as one commenter on a Reddit thread discussing the ad shows: ‘The thing that annoyed me most was the line, “I can hear the sound of Frosties hitting my plate”.
‘Who eats cereal off a plate?! It makes no sense! Also, in the video, they’re visibly in a bowl! I shouldn’t care so much but it’s annoyed me for literally decades now.’
Another agreed: ‘Not sure why he eats cereal off a plate though.’
But the false rumours created about him dying were more ‘disturbing’, the actor said.
Sven was said to have stuck two pencils up his nose and slammed his head on the desk, unable to cope with the internet abuse -or perhaps fled to Australia to escape the scrutiny.
Others conjectured the boy only got the primetime ad job because he was terminally ill and it was his dying wish to promote a British cereal.
Some conjectured the boy only got the primetime ad job (pictured) because he was terminally ill and it was his dying wish to promote a British cereal
Despite his frustrated clapback at the time, he said with more distance from filming that the bitter online criticism of him did not bother him too much: ‘I was 14, I wanted to be outside and play’. Pictured: Sven earlier this year
Some complaints were more harmless, as commenters on a Reddit thread (pictured) discussing the ad showed
Frosties might have started him out – but his big break back home came in South African comedy film trilogy Spud (pictured, with Sven second right), from 2010 to 2014, opposite John Cleese and Australian singer Troye Sivan
The actor recalled, with grim amusement: ‘There’s a great video on YouTube of me getting hit by a train – twice, and then just for safety, I’m then blown up with a bomb.’
He also remembered a reporter jumping his garden gate at home, just to get some facetime with him: ‘That was just over and above the general harsh comments and cyberbullying.’
Sven eventually put an end to these illusions – he used the money he earned from the major commercial to fund a trip abroad to do gymnastics, one of his greatest loves.
‘Simple, lame and far less cool than the urban legends’, he reflected.
He even went on to train as a national artistic gymnast – and was selected to perform for prestigious acrobatics group Cirque du Soleil while still in high school.
But he eventually left behind his athletic endeavours to go back to focussing on acting, which he still does, from his home in Johannesburg now.
Frosties might have started him out – but his big break back home came in South African comedy film trilogy Spud, from 2010 to 2014, opposite John Cleese and Australian singer Troye Sivan.
It follows a young lad nicknamed Spud, played by Troye, who wins a scholarship to an elite private boarding school, with Sven starring as Rambo, one of a lead cast of classmates as Spud settles in.
It follows a young lad nicknamed Spud (centre right), played by Troye, who wins a scholarship to an elite private boarding school, with Sven (centre left) starring as Rambo, one of a lead cast of classmates as Spud settles in
Sven (left) also featured in 2013 film Zulu, as the teenage son of Orlando Bloom’s (right) character, one of several detectives investigating a woman’s murder, seemingly linked to a biological weapons programme of the South African apartheid regim
Sven (right) also had a small part alongside David Tennant (left) in the 2021 BBC TV adaptation of Jules Verne’s 1872 adventure novel Around The World In 80 Days
Sven also featured in 2013 film Zulu, as the teenage son of Orlando Bloom’s character, one of several detectives investigating a woman’s murder, seemingly linked to a biological weapons programme of the South African apartheid regime.
He also had a small part alongside David Tennant in the 2021 BBC TV adaptation of Jules Verne’s 1872 adventure novel Around The World In 80 Days.
Most recently, the actor got his biggest international role to date, in Star Trek: Section 31, a sci-fi film starring Michelle Yeoh set in the franchise’s ‘lost’ era between the original sixties films and the start of the beloved Next Generation TV series, in 1987.
Sven was part of the lead cast as Fuzz, an alien called a Nanokin that works for Section 31, a space intelligence agency – and found himself doing fight scenes with Academy Award-winning Michelle.
He told Trek Movie: ‘She is a performer of note, not just in her acting, but her physical ability.’
The dedicated actress stretched for two hours before call time every day: ‘That brought out the A-game and she elevates things, just by her nature, just by her being generous. So, when we were doing the fight scenes, she’s phenomenal.’
In an astonishing and heart-warming move, he has also since turned his own experience of bullying, following the Frosties ad, into running anti-bullying workshops, giving talks and providing therapeutic life coaching to kids.
Mentioning young people’s reliance on external validation to remind them of their worth, causing issues with anxiety, body image and mental health, he said: ‘I share with them my story and remind them to focus on bigger things.
Most recently, the actor got his biggest international role to date (pictured), in Star Trek: Section 31, a sci-fi film starring Michelle Yeoh set in the franchise’s ‘lost’ era between the original sixties films and the start of the beloved Next Generation TV series, in 1987
Sven was part of the lead cast as Fuzz (pictured), an alien called a Nanokin that works for Section 31, a space intelligence agency
He found himself doing fight scenes with Academy Award-winning Michelle (pictured)
‘Because when we all die, what they will remember is the qualities that you possessed and the kind of person that you were.’
And his animated moves, which viewers of the commercial found so jarring? Schools that hire him as a speaker seem to love it now, with one review saying: ‘The learners just loved your presentation, particularly your physical theatre.’
With nearly 20 years hindsight, he now feels he benefitted from all that cereal-related censure, learning humility – and the hard lesson that actors need to be able to take criticism to stay in the ring.
Sven said: ‘If I listened to all those rumours about myself, I would never be in an industry where I am constantly criticised.’
And after all that, he confessed he never ate Frosties anyway: ‘Not because I have anything against the brand due to the commercial but because they are just not my cup of tea.’
