UPDATED! A "Mad Man" Pop Tarts Bowl

[scroll to bottom for the update]

The Twitterverse has spent the last 18 hours talking about last night's Pop Tart's Bowl and how much fun it was. 

Our Kansas State Wildcats defeated the North Carolina State Wolfpack 28-19 in a really great game. The Kansas City Star had an apt headline.

Left, the giant Pop Tarts mascot.
Right, K-State's QB, and Player of the Game, Avery Johnson. 

The Pop Tarts people did an amazing job with their fun "edible mascot" that is being talked about from Sports Illustrated to Variety (the "bible" of show business) to CBS.

How did they come up with this idea? 

For fans of the television series Mad Men, the Twitterers has been coming up with various Don Draper (the main character ,who is a marketing genius, on NYC's Madison Ave. in the '50's) scenarios. Here's mine:

• Don, "This is how breakfast food is typically sold. It won't work for Pop Tarts which have been around 40 years. We want to sell more Pop Tarts."
• Colleague Peggy, "Let's give everyone a free pack when they come into the stadium."
• Don, "That's good, but it doesn't reach the people at home. They won't be able to taste the strawberry and frosting goodness."
• Peggy, "What do you have in mind?"

• Don, [taking a drag from his Pall Mall] "What about this? We create a cute 'World's Largest Pop Tart' and have him pop out of a giant toaster? He walks around the game doing cute things. We'll have to find just the right person to play, let's call him, 'Strawberry.'"
• Peggy, "That's a good name. Go on..."
• Don, "Everyone falls in love with him. Then, after the game is over, he climbs back onto the giant toaster and descends. He says it is his dream to be 'toasted and enjoyed.'"
• Peggy, tentatively, "Toasted? What happens next?"

• Peggy, "Are you insane, Don?!"
• Don, "The winning team gets to eat the giant Pop Tart while Donna Summer's Hot Stuff plays over the PA.That's much more appealing than the winning coach taking a shower in Duke's Mayo, which is pretty gross. Everyone will be talking about the giant Pop Tart and giant toaster the next day! Pop Tarts will be revived as a fun, hip, brand."
• Peggy, "But Notre Dame [the team originally scheduled to play K-State] will never go for it!"
• Don, "Let them play in some two-bit bowl in El Paso! This is how you sell breakfast food!"

And so it came to be. You can watch Strawberry get toasted and served to Kansas State, here. 

The Pop Tart is running for President. Hilarious thread here.