Back in the mid-2000s there existed an advert that was even more notoriously annoying than the ‘Go Compare’ guy. One that was so hated that it became viral before the days of viral. That was the Frosties kid. Do you remember that little twat? Let’s just refresh our memories, shall we?

That ridiculously over the top song and dance performance carried out by a kid who was definitely old enough to know better was the subject of many, many jokes at school. What followed from this was a long series of playground rumours about who the kid was and what happened to him following his 15 minutes of fame.

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There were so many conflicting and dramatic stories – the one that I mostly heard was the pretty macabre story that the bullying about the advert became so severe that he jammed a pencil up his nose to commit suicide. Another was that he was beaten or stabbed to death by hooligans who took it on themselves to rid the world of this kid who was simply too annoying for TV.

The rumours also took a different form, with one saying that the boy was dying of cancer and it was either his or his dad’s final wish that he appear in the advert as a final tribute to the teen’s life. I think we all know that one isn’t true.

And finally, my personal favourite and the one I took upon myself to spread around the school playground – I heard that his mum shot him because she was so embarrassed and ashamed of the advert. There’s definite potential.

Question is, which one was it? Are any of them true or did these rumours all get sparked from nothing? Was the Frosties kid just a myth and in fact he was just a normal kid? The answer to that is pretty much yes, kinda. Although the actor managed to keep his anonymity up, a few years back The Sun managed to find out the truth and whether he had in fact died as result of appearing in a cereal ad.

His name is Sven Ruygrok and he is now aged around 24. Truth is he was born in South Africa and currently resides in Cape Town where he is trying to make it as an actor. We’ve even got a recent picture.

Me and the cousin @danilo_acquisto just casually chilling with coffee beans in our hand ☕️ pic.twitter.com/3gFbd5p2MG

— Sven Ruygrok (@SvenRuygrok) October 29, 2015

At the time that the advert was filmed, Sven was 15-years-old and training to be a gymnast. And part of the story was true – when The Sun newspaper managed to track him down a few years back they had to omit his surname because he was still receiving so many death threats as a result of being in the advert. He was reported to have said:

Can’t these fools distinguish between me and a character in an ad?

So I guess in that sense there was some fuel to the fire with regards to the rumours – there were some people out there who wanted or at least said that they wanted him dead for having such an irritating on-screen presence. But it’s still outstanding that the rumours got that out of hand and just goes to show that teenagers are a bunch of morons who love to spread about bullshit, myself included.

While we’re on the topic of viral characters, to find out the truth behind ‘Democracy Manifest’ guy, click HERE.