XP Op-Ed

The Pop-Tarts Bowl Won Because It Remembered Sports Are Supposed to Be Fun

At the third annual Pop-Tarts Bowl in Orlando, FL, BYU beat Georgia Tech, holding off the Yellow Jackets with a last-minute interception and securing the ultimate prize: a fully-functioning toaster trophy—and the opportunity to eat the giant edible mascots on live television. Absurd. Theatrical. And it worked because Pop-Tarts grasped two things most brands miss: Bowl season games exist for fun, not prestige. And fun needs a story, not just a stunt.  https://youtu.be/UjQ1sCA7B0k?si=V7iAFaX5e_DwIL_Z Content over prestige Bowl season (especially outside the playoffs) has always carried a particular irreverence. The Rose Bowl can lean on a century of tradition. The Pop-Tarts Bowl? The Duke's Mayo Bowl? The Famous Idaho Potato Bowl? These games exist because they're fun to watch, fun to talk about, and generate content for ESPN during an otherwise dead part of the year.  These aren't championship games. They're celebration games with quirky sponsorships and enthusiastic fanbases. The athletes play hard, but the stakes are loose enough to embrace spectacle. Trying to manufacture gravitas is the surest way to be forgettable. PopTarts looked at that landscape and didn't try to make it serious. They made it more fun. Then gave that fun structure. Storytelling over stunt Three years in,...