Several life-sized Pop-Tarts made it onto national TV on Saturday and college football fans had a crazy good time with the toaster pastry madness.
The No. 18 Iowa State Cyclones took on the No. 15 Miami Hurricanes in Orlando, Florida in a bowl game that’s cycled through several names over its 30-plus year history before landing on the Pop-Tarts Bowl last year.
Sports fans meme’d out the bowl game in its first go-around when a smiling, frosted strawberry-flavored Pop-Tart mascot was lowered into what looked to be a massive toaster and a giant, edible Pop-Tart slid out of the bottom of the set-up as if the mascot was toasted (they hopefully weren’t).
The game’s winning team, the Kansas State Wildcats, presumably ate the edible Pop-Tart at the time.
But this year’s contest, which the Cyclones won 42-41, unwrapped a bizarre twist early on.
A number of Pop-Tart mascots ran to the center of the field before the game and ripped off mock packaging to reveal they were based on the brand’s hot fudge sundae, wild berry and cinnamon roll flavors.
“Marketer: You get those Pop Tarts ready for the game? Mascot Handler: Sure did boss, real fuckin sexy just like you asked. Marketer: what,” wrote a user on X of the moment.
The stadium’s video board then aired a bizarre video tribute to the toasted, frosted strawberry “friend” from 2023 backed by the tunes of Wiz Khalifa’s “See You Again” and George Frideric Handel’s “Messiah.”
The frosted strawberry mascot, widely believed to be consumed by college football players, soon appeared — with a new, pre-consumed look — on top of the video board.
Elsewhere during the bowl game festivities, a wild berry-flavored Pop-Tart mascot ran mock combine drills and Pop-Tarts popped out of the bowl game’s trophy like a toaster.
Social media users gushed over the mascots and gave the brand props for “doing sponsorship right.”
“The trophy is a toaster, there are sprinkles on the sidelines and the mascot is a deranged Pop Tart who wants you to cannibalize his friends. Don’t just slap your company name on a bowl and do nothing,” one person wrote.
Leading up to the game, one Pop-Tart mascot also made its way to an Orlando women’s hospital where it cradled a baby, met with mothers and handed out boxes of the toaster pastry.
After the game, Iowa State quarterback Rocco Becht ― who was awarded the Pop-Tarts Bowl MVP ― picked the cinnamon roll mascot to drop down into a toaster-looking structure in a stunt similar to one from last year.
One fan on X weighed in on the stunt, writing, “And now it’s time for America’s Greatest Tradition: murdering a Pop Tart on live TV.”
We Need Your Support
Already contributed? Log in to hide these messages.
It’s unclear whether the mascot will be revived from the bottom of the toaster during next year’s edition of the bowl game.