Chapmanesque—The Pop-Tarts Bowl has Joy Figured Out
We’re at the end of bowl season, and if you’re not a college football fan, stick with me as I (very) briefly set the stage.
The bowls this year have been fairly lackluster as they have been for the past few years. Aside from some a handful of games that have kept people on the edge of their seats, the once glorious bowls have very much shown they are more about the money than they are about the competition.
Of course, the NIL era and the recently expanded 12-team playoff format have had an impact on the functionality of bowl games.
But I’m not here to compose yet another rant about how Name, Image and Likeness has all but destroyed the college football that has existed for over a century.
Instead, I want to focus not on the players, the coaches, the families or the fans. No, I want to veer towards something else that has a special place in pop-culture—the Pop-Tart.
The Pop-Tarts Bowl
The Pop-Tarts Bowl was originally called the Blockbuster Bowl back in the early 1990s and experienced many name changes and title sponsors. When Kellogg’s took over the naming rights, they called it the Cheez-It Bowl but moved that brand to be the headliner of the Citrus Bowl in 2023. Still with me? I hope so.
Once Cheez-It was shifted, it allowed for Pop-Tarts to take a hold of their very own bowl, introducing a few unique elements to their bowl, elements that have permeated a good bit of American pop-culture.
The marketing team made clever use of the frosted tops and sprinkles found on various flavors offered by having the wide white lines encapsulating the field appear as if they have been frosted and sprinkled.
The Pop-Tarts Bowl trophy has a football at the top with slots for two Pop-Tarts to fit, as if the trophy was a toaster. Rumor has it, the trophy is actually a toaster.
If that’s not enough, the Pop-Tarts Bowl’s mascots stole the show. You probably have an idea of what I’m talking about. The mascots are (you guessed it) human sized Pop-Tarts.
The revelry and frivolity such an atmosphere promises to produce hit a fever pitch when, during the inaugural Pop-Tarts Bowl after Kansas State defeated NC State 28-19. What followed was history making, something known as “The Sacrifice.”
Accompanying the giant Pop-Tart was a giant toaster, and you know how those work.
In went the “live” Pop-Tart. Out popped a “toasted” gigantic Pop-Tart.
This was glorious.
Endearing and Intentional
The Marketing Firm Weber Shandwick headed this up brilliantly.
“It all starts with a clear strategy: stay true to our brand DNA,” Jeffrey Spivock, Weber Shandwick’s EVP of integrated media strategy said.
Jenny Lindquist, senior director of full-funnel marketing for Pop-Tarts at Kellanova, echoed these same sentiments with advice to other PR professionals: “When you lead with creativity, stay rooted in purpose and deliver experiences with a wink and a smile, you invite fans to engage with your brand in ways that feel both unexpected and unforgettable.” (Source: PR Daily)
For the 2025 Pop-Tarts Bowl, Weber Shandwick didn’t come into it with the mindset that this was a one-day party and that it’s something that gets “later attention” once the primary aspects are handled. In fact, it’s the complete opposite.
I took this from their website. I can’t really whittle it down and do it justice, so here’s the whole thing:
Instead of one-off stunts and ideas, we created lore for our brand, building on year one with a true sequel that delivered what fans wanted and surprised them in unexpected ways. We were able to hero our product and flavors while entertaining new and existing fans.
Pop-Tarts wanted to relaunch its Frosted Cinnamon Roll flavor, a product innovation aimed at further driving growth and penetration. And we needed to not only help the brand return for The Pop-Tarts Bowl — we had to outshine year one.
We tossed out the sports sponsorship playbook and picked up Hollywood’s script, treating our campaign as a film franchise. We expanded our cast and introduced the next stars of our story, Wild Berry, Hot Fudge Sundae, and newly relaunched Frosted Cinnamon Roll.
Just like in the movies, we added new characters and your favorite dies at the end. The game’s MVP chose which mascot to sacrifice, joining his team in eating its body live on TV. Like all major franchises, the characters were available for purchase and we even had a surprise cameo from last year’s star Frosted Strawberry.
The whole thing was intentional, and it landed with their audience. I’d be willing to argue more people watched the Pop-Tarts Bowl than any of the other seemingly random bowls simply because of the effort put into the narrative and the “antics” that made that bowl what it is.
SOURCE: Weber Shandwick
The Hot (Toasted) Take
In a College Football world where every diehard fan thinks their team is the one team that will truly be the best in the nation, a good amount of “things” are taken far too seriously.
Our rivalry is the most heated rivalry, and our rival is the worst team on the face of the earth.
Our conference is so much better than all the other conferences.
Our coach is the best coach, unless he’s leaving for another team, and if so, then he can shove it!
I’m a season ticket holder, and because of that I’m more important than anyone who isn’t a season ticket holder.
I know all the names of all the humans to ever play for my team and all the names of anyone who will ever play for this team, and I know more than you will ever know. (I mean, I didn’t actually go to the school in the state I’ve never even visited, but I’m diehard! More diehard than anyone. Ever!)
Then there’s the Pop-Tarts Bowl. A wonderfully toasted breath of fresh air.
They’re not the Rose Bowl with a parade.
They’re not the Sugar Bowl in the Superdome.
They’re not the Peach Bowl in Atlanta or Cotton Bowl in Dallas.
They’re simply content with being innovative, with being unique, with being cheeky, with being silly—with being themselves.
Doing Their Own Thing
They’re not pretending to be the most important one in the room, putting on airs, as they used to say back in the 1900s.
They set their own standard, and they’re content with living up to it. This sort of mindset grants a freedom that being a follower can’t offer. It allows them to set the trend (a viral trend at that) and not keep up with the Joneses.
They’re not worried about being the next this or the next that. They’re running with the fire in their bellies the race they’ve been challenged with during whatever time they’ve been given.
They’re not promised another year (although contractually, I’m sure they have some sort of idea how long the future might look), not promised blind creative freedom, not promised that their tactics will land and their antics will strike a chord.
But regardless of that, they’re staying true to themselves, pushing their own limits and definitions of what is acceptable and what is possible. They’re embracing the idea of “Why not?!” instead of being governed by the restrictions of contentment and self-righteousness.
That takes guts. It brings with it the possibility of failure, the possibility of rejection. But, I’d be willing to bet Pop-Tarts would say that failure is part of it. The more someone tries to fit into the box of expectation, the more they realize that box isn’t where the joy is, not where the creative lives.
In this new year, I wonder if we could take a play out of the Pop-Tarts Bowl’s playbook.
What would happen if we went “all in” at not really subscribing to the narrative others give us, but instead writing our own story and following who we truly are.
Who knows, I bet it will expand our reach in ways we’ve yet to imagine.
I bet we’ll have more fun too.
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