Unpacking the (not quite) true story of the Pop-Tart and what a zany Seinfeld comedy says about the Kellanova brand 60 years on...
Unfrosted, through the lens of colourful 1960's Americana and an all star ensemble cast, tells the story of the Pop-Tart. In competition with local rivals Post, Kellogg's developed a new toaster-prepared breakfast pastry. An instant success, the first shipment of Pop-Tarts to stores sold out in two weeks, and Kellogg's ran advertisements apologising for the empty shelves. Today.. Pop-Tarts are Kellonova's most popular brand in the US with Americans consuming three billion of them a year.
In the film, Seinfeld plays Bob Cabana, a Kellogg's employee who in a competitive market rushed to bring a new product to the American breakfast table, bringing together a top team to bring this vision to life. Overcoming opposition from cereal mascots, led by Hugh grant, and the milk industry, all concerned with the potential of breakfast no longer being cereal based.
Fact or Fiction?
Like the film suggests, in the early 1960s, Kellogg's biggest competitor, Post invented a process for dehydrating food and enclosing it in foil to keep it fresh. Originally used for dog food, they were looking to expand their breakfast market and adapted the process to a new toaster-prepared breakfast pastry. Post announced its new product to the press in 1964 several months before they went to market, calling them "Country Squares".
Because Post had revealed Country Squares before they were ready for the marketplace, Kellogg's rushed to develop their own version. They hired Bill Post (the real inspiration for Cabana) for the task and created their own breakfast pastry in just four months. Initially called Fruit Scones (Not the Trat-Pop Seinfeld would have you believe), although similarly, the name was soon changed to Pop-Tarts as a pun on the then popular Pop Art movement.
This approach of bringing the business world to the silver screen isn't all that new, with The Social Network and The Founder doing the genre justice previously. Although the light-hearted approach is refreshing and should help to contextualise the global food businesses in a simpler time..
What Unfrosted does do is perfectly illustrate the challenges and people involved in bringing new products to market - and this film also sets the stage for the shift the company would go through, culminating in the new snacking-focused entity Kellanova.
What other stories can be told from the world of FMCG?
WK Kellogg Co #FMCG #Unfrosted #Poptart
Food Science Enthusiast | Business Development Manager | Idea Alchemist
4moCan’t wait to see the next bold flavor to hit the market!