According to rumor, the lad who sang the irritating refrain was beaten or stabbed by hooligans who took it upon themselves to deride him for his role, or was verbally picked on by bullies to the extent that he was moved to take his own life. In this, the most common form of the legend, the boy's annoying repetition of "It's gonna taste
But the rumors also took a different form, one that did not have the boy's death occur as a consequence of the commercial (i.e., he was attacked by others or died by his own hand). In a secondary form of the legend, a grieving father who had lost his son to cancer succeeded, via the magic of technology, in having his deceased child inserted into the ad as a final tribute to the boy (possibly because it was the lad's dying wish). Here the youngster's flatness of tone was, by implication, explained by the rumor: the oddly-sung jingle was the result of its having been pieced together after the boy's death from recordings made of him during his brief lifetime.
Possibly the conclusion of the Frosties ad where the boy leaves Tony the Tiger and the trailing crowd behind as he rises up into the sky (where Tony reappears beside him to issue a final "They're gonna taste great!") worked to fuel all forms of the rumor, in that rising into the sky is a visual metaphor for going to Heaven.
Frosties have failed to prove that any of these rumours are false...
