Cheerios continues to spread Olympic 'Cheer'

Cheerios is bringing back its 'Cheer' postcard and giving consumers the opportunity to share words of encouragement with Team Canada athletes ahead of the 2018 Olympic Winter Games, which kicks off Feb. 9 in PyeongChang, South Korea.

Consumers can cut out a Cheer card located on the front of the Cheerios box, fill it in and mail it free of charge to an athlete at Canada Olympic House in South Korea.

"We are hoping that Canadians will join us to support Team Canada as we showcase our world-class athletes. We want to see Canadian pride shine and send even more cheer cards to our athletes competing at PyeongChang 2018" said Emma Eriksson, vice-president marketing at General Mills Canada, in a press release announcing the initiative.

Read: General Mills Canada removing gluten-free label from Cheerios

Over the years, the General Mills-owned cereal brand has sent more than 36,000 cards through the Cheer advertising program. This leg of the campaign marks the first time the brand has removed the Cheerios name from the front of the box -- leaving 'cheer' on the front and moving the "ios" to the side panel.

The Cheer platform launched in July 2009  -- ahead of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver -- with an execution that included a 30-second television commercial (below) featuring a little boy sending a Cheer card to figure skater Patrick Chan. The commercial ended with a shot of the cut up cereal box back at the boy’s home with the tag line: “It starts with a little cheer.”