Cheerios is an American brand of cereal manufactured by General Mills, consisting of pulverized oats in the shape of a solid torus. It was introduced in 1941 as CheeriOats, but the name was changed to Cheerios in 1945. Highly effective marketing led to the cereal's great success for General Mills, which sold approximately 1.8 million cases of Honey Nut Cheerios in its first year alone.