It is a truth universally acknowledged — that last December’s death and subsequent dismemberment of a Pop-Tarts Bowl mascot was one of the greatest moments in modern sports history.
Frosted Strawberry believed it to be an honor to sacrifice his anthropomorphic form to the college football gods, holding up a sign that read, “Dreams really do come true,” as he descended into the top of a giant toaster on the field following Kansas State’s win over North Carolina State. Moments later, an edible frosted strawberry cake popped out of the bottom of said toaster. It was immediately devoured by K-State players and coaches.
The moment went viral, its reach stretching far beyond just sports fans. TODAY covered it on the morning news, and People magazine featured it. Memes of the moment have endured, with versatile usage even now, a year later. It was one of the most indelible images of the calendar year.
ORLANDO, FLORIDA - DECEMBER 28: The Pop-Tarts mascot is lowered into a toaster following the 2023 Pop-Tarts Bowl between the Kansas State Wildcats and the NC State Wolfpack at Camping World Stadium on December 28, 2023 in Orlando, Florida. (Photo by Julio Aguilar/Getty Images)
Julio Aguilar/Getty Images
So, what comes next? What does the Pop-Tarts Bowl do for an encore? How do you even try to top a pop culture moment like that?
You triple the number of mascots and give each mascot its own distinct personality. You let the bowl game MVP pick the mascot (flavor) to eat. You hire engineers to build a fully functioning toaster into the football-shaped trophy large enough to actually toast full-size Pop-Tarts.
“Everything combined for this crazy zeitgeist moment, and it’s really hard to follow that up,” said Matt Repchak, the Chief Marketing Officer of Florida Citrus Sports, which puts on the bowl game. “So, how do we ramp it up? How do we unleash the spectacle? Turn it up to 11?”
Event organizers tell NBC Sports that the goal was to keep parts of the brand activation that they know fans loved last year (like the edible mascot) while elevating them (like having three) and tying them even more to the actual game (like letting the game MVP pick which edible mascot to eat). The edible part of the Pop-Tart — what the winning team’s players and coaches can scoop up and eat — is made by a local bakery, Pop-Tarts brand manager Alex Sotiropoulos said. The brand’s research and development team ensures that the cake’s taste profile matches that of its packaged toaster pastries.
Pop-Tart officials also partnered with GE Appliances to build a one-of-kind toaster trophy. Last year’s trophy looked like a football-shaped toaster and had two slits presumably for Pop-Tarts, but it wasn’t functional. Fans asked if it was at all possible for the trophy to be a real toaster — and Pop-Tart and GE Appliances began working to answer that question in early November. GE Appliances called Rick Suel, the director of product engineering at FirstBuild, to see if he and his team would be up for tackling this strange request. They do custom projects all the time, but this was an ask he’d never heard before.
“The first response was, ‘OK, come on,’” Suel said. “’This is a real thing? Are you serious?’ Then it’s: ‘What does it need to look like? What are the dimensions? Is it going to be a regular toaster or do you want us to do movie magic?’
“We came up with a couple of designs that we thought might be possible. The stretch goal was an actual functional toaster.”
As Suel’s team started exploring various designs and iterations, it quickly became apparent that this was doable. They 3D-printed pieces and did test-fitting with plastic parts. Then they got 300 pounds of raw aluminum — big blocks of it — and used equipment called a CNC mill to cut out the design. Out of the 300 pounds of raw aluminum came two 27-pound trophies. Each one took about 60 hours to actually build (including the interior engineering to give it the ability to toast pastries), and then hand polishing took an additional 16 hours per trophy. (One trophy will be the main trophy for the game, and the other will be used for other events and activations.)
Each trophy is 1.3x the size of a regulation football, and the toaster part of the trophy alone weighs 27 pounds. The base weighs 50 pounds, so it’ll be a heavy lift for the winning team. At the bottom of the trophy’s base is a plug tail with a 10-foot power cord attached. There’s a lever built into the trophy as well so you can pop a pastry into the slits, and they’ll toast for about 90 seconds before popping up again.
“It’s probably Guinness Book of World Records-worthy,” Suel said.
Or, at the very least, the College Football Hall of Fame.
“The toaster is, like, over 100 years old, and people thought innovation was done,” Suel said. “It’s the last appliance you would think you could innovate on. Yet here we are. It’s totally unexpected.”
But it’s also pretty much perfect. This is a bowl game sponsored by a beloved breakfast item and a brand that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Event organizers want this bowl game to stand out from the crowd, which is increasingly difficult for bowls that aren’t part of the College Football Playoff. Teams want to play in this game, and both Miami and Iowa State want to win — so their players get to eat the edible mascot. Miami quarterback Cam Ward, a Heisman Trophy finalist, has said he will play in this game instead of opting out.
So, there will be real, good football in this game. But there will also be plenty of antics, per sources. Fans can expect some sort of tribute to Frosted Strawberry, the edible mascot who died doing what he loved. We will meet Frosted Wild Berry, who is expected to be quick, unpredictable, kind of like a toddler on a sugar high, or like the actor Charlie Day. Frosted Cinnamon Roll (more laid-back and lighthearted) and Frosted Hot Fudge Sundae (tons of swagger and confidence) will round out the group. It is believed that the three live mascots will be played by former NBA mascots. Last year, Frosted Strawberry was played by former Chicago Bulls’ Benny the Bull performer Barry Anderson.
The mascots are again expected to feature heavily into the ABC broadcast when the game kicks off on Dec. 28. The eventual edible mascot self-sacrifice will either air on ABC or, if the game’s window ends, the ceremony will stream live on ESPN+. It’s exactly the kind of content that college football fans are looking for from bowl season — and makes fans both hungry and nostalgic in equal measure.
The success of last year’s bowl game spawned other opportunities for the Pop-Tart brand. It partnered with Spirit Halloween to sell Pop-Tart mascot costumes. And Sotiropoulos said at a recent Sports Business Journal conference that Pop-Tart sold 21 million more toaster pastries in the eight weeks following the game than it did the eight weeks prior to the game.
Last year, the Pop-Tarts Bowl turned into a phenomenon that transcended sports. It will try to capture that ridiculous and wonderful magic again in just a few short days.
“There’s this marriage of general public and college football fans coming together for the Pop-Tarts Bowl,” Sotiropoulos said. “Whether you’re an athlete, whether you’re a fan, whether you maybe aren’t even interested in college football — there’s something in the Pop-Tarts Bowl for you. And people just love Pop-Tarts.”
