Closing out 2023 with a bang, an anthropomorphic Pop-Tart named Strawberry has captured the hearts and tantalized the taste buds of people all over the internet.

Strawberry’s life was short but sweet. The giant Pop-Tart spent this year’s Pop-Tarts Bowl game in Orlando on Thursday running around referees, almost being licked by a football player and feeding people Pop-Tarts — all with a smile. And the mascot’s intense energy and excitement about being eaten has made it an online talking point, attracting viewers who don’t typically find themselves watching college football or eating heavily processed toaster pastries.

Who is Strawberry, the viral Pop-Tarts Bowl mascot?

Strawberry, a wide-eyed Pop-Tart mascot with a giant grin on its face — rose to fame atop a giant toaster that was set up on the field at Camping World Stadium in Orlando. This year, the Kansas State Wildcats football team won the game 28-19 against the North Carolina State Wolfpack, also winning the sole dining rights to feast on Strawberry. The mascot’s costume isn’t actually edible, but an edible pastry version of Strawberry, with a winking face, popped out of the toaster for the winners to enjoy.

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At the end of the game, Strawberry returned to that same toaster, this time holding a sign that said “Dreams really do come true.” As Strawberry pointed downward, the ginormous Pop-Tart was lowered into the toaster to happily meet its fate.

“We will always love you, Strawberry,” the game announcer said. “Can’t wait to eat you.”

Within moments, the mascot was toasted, picked apart in fistfuls and eaten by the Pop-Tarts Bowl champions and their family members, as purple and white confetti rained down. All that remained on the serving tray was an ominous eyeball.

“For sixty years, Pop-Tarts has been challenging convention and bringing Crazy Good to everything we do. It’s in our DNA, so why would we approach college football any differently?” Heidi Ray, Pop-Tarts senior director of brand marketing, said in a statement. “When we began to think about game-day rituals, the mascot was obviously a big moment that we wanted to reimagine and bring to life in a way only Pop-Tarts can, and in a way our fans have come to expect.”

How have people reacted to the mascot?

Rodger Sherman, a 33-year-old New York sportswriter, said he hadn’t eaten Pop-Tarts in a long time before attending the game, his 57th stop along his four-month college football road trip project. But on Friday afternoon, as Sherman drove to his next game, Pop-Tarts were top of mind. He decided to eat a strawberry-flavored Pop-Tart after his own discomforting and enjoyable meetup with the viral mascot a little bit after halftime.

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“The mascot was very, very excited to create slightly disturbing, uncomfortable, strange interactions with people,” Sherman said.

“I asked if it was offensive to eat a Pop-Tart in front of the @PopTartsBowl mascot and then its handler yelled out ‘ITS THEIR DREAM’ and then the mascot grabbed a Pop-Tart out of my hand and started force-feeding it to me while making soft grunting noises,” he posted on X, formerly Twitter.

In the picture Sherman posted, which now has more than 42,000 likes, Strawberry looks happy as ever, shoving a piece of blueberry Pop-Tart into Sherman’s mouth with a tan-gloved hand. Sherman said he wasn’t sure if the grunts he heard were intentional, but they were definitely audible.

I asked if it was offensive to eat a Pop-Tart in front of the @PopTartsBowl mascot and then its handler yelled out “ITS THEIR DREAM” and then the mascot grabbed a Pop-Tart out of my hand and started force-feeding it to me while making soft grunting noises pic.twitter.com/PaCDY6mzu3

Online, sports and Strawberry fans alike were fascinated by how happy Strawberry was to be sacrificed.

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The Stanford Tree, the mascot for the Stanford Band, paid homage on X: “RIP to my dear friend and mentor, the @PopTartsBowl Mascot,” the Stanford Tree wrote. “I find solace in knowing that — in being eaten — you achieved your most precious goal. This loss is bitter and sweet, sugary and tart. Just like you Leviticus 26:29”

“Not the hero we deserved but the hero we needed,” one user commented.

Others said they were “proud to be an american” after seeing Strawberry make the ultimate sacrifice.

“We’ve always sacrificed everything in the name of flavor, so it only felt right to do the same for our mascot,” Ray said. “Our mascot, like our iconic toaster pastries, was born to be enjoyed by fans. So just like the sign Frosted Strawberry held while being lowered into our giant toaster, this is what its dreams were made of.”

What other famous mascots does Strawberry remind us of?

For many people on social media, Strawberry the Pop-Tart called to mind other beloved mascot-turned-internet memes.

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Some mentioned Left Shark, who stole the show as Katy Perry sang “Teenage Dream” at the Super Bowl halftime show in 2015.

“It did change my life — I didn’t become a millionaire, but I lived one of the biggest dreams any dancer can imagine,” Bryan Gaw, the professional dancer responsible for Left Shark’s smooth moves, wrote in 2018.

Gritty, the orange, googly-eyed mascot for the Philadelphia Flyers National Hockey League team, has a sizable fan base and sometimes makes appearances off the rink.

And food-themed mascots aren’t new in the football realm. Florida Citrus Sports, which operates the Pop-Tarts Bowl, also runs the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl at the same stadium. Prince Cheddward and Ched-Z have been the Cheez-It bowl’s featured mascots.

“The Cheez-It Citrus Bowl has an incredible and storied history of getting college football fans and players ‘Feelin’ the Cheeziest’ with its absurd antics,” Ray said. She said the next bowl would feature a “Cheez-It Flexin’ Section” with an on-field barbershop and spa.

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At Duke’s Mayo Bowl, Tubby reigns as mascot, and the gooey white condiment gets poured on a representative from the game’s winning team each year.

What is the Pop-Tarts Bowl?

The Pop-Tarts Bowl, originally called the Blockbuster Bowl, is an annual college football bowl game that has been held in Florida since 1990, according to the Pop-Tarts Bowl website. Initially, it was hosted in Miami, but it’s now at Orlando’s Camping World Stadium.

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