Summary
- Seinfeld’s Unfrosted distorts history of Pop-Tarts creation, focusing on fictional characters and a limited timeline.
- The film overlooks the rivalry between Kellogg’s and Post and misses the key role of frosting in Pop-Tarts’ success.
- Seinfeld’s character in Unfrosted undermines the true origin of Pop-Tarts’ frosting idea, altering the historical narrative.
Jerry Seinfeld’s brand new directorial debut Unfrosted gets some facts wrong about the history of Pop-Tarts. Released as a Netflix original, it follows a fictionalized account of the creation of the famous toaster pastry. The larger cast of Unfrosted includes the likes of Melissa McCarthy, Jim Gaffigan, and Amy Schumer, and the film has been negatively received by both critics and audiences.
It’s the first time that Seinfeld has sat in the director’s chair for a feature film. The premise is based on a joke he told in the past about the creation of the Pop-Tart, and Unfrosted takes on a highly colorful and comedic presentation. The real-world story of Pop-Tarts is quite different from Unfrostedwith the rivalry between Kellogg’s and Post being both intense and ongoing. With the combination of most of the main characters in Unfrosted being fictional and the timeline being concentrated on the early 1960s, some key details have been misrepresented.
Pop-Tarts Started Using Frosting In 1967, Four Years After Unfrosted
One of the central points in the film is that the earliest Pop-Tarts didn’t have any of the now-famous frosting on them, hence the movie’s title. The real story of Pop-Tarts from Unfrosted sees William Post, who was a former Keeblers employee, as he quickly created the pastry in four months so that Kellogg’s could sneakily undercut Post’s attempt at a similar product, Country Squares, that was going to be released later on. Just a few years later, they found a frosting that could withstand a toaster oven, and the modern Pop-Tart was born.
This aspect of the creation of the Pop-Tart is not covered in Unfrostedwhich ends its story in 1963. Kellogg’s and Post, in reality, had a long and storied rivalry in the breakfast foods market. The initial run of Pop-Tarts sold out incredibly quickly, easily outdoing Country Squares. The desire to stay ahead of Post and to keep on innovating their product is what led to such a focus for Kellogg’s to develop frosting for Pop-Tarts. The frosting question is, however, alluded to in the final moments of the Netflix film, albeit in a way that contradicts the true story.
Jerry Seinfeld’s Unfrosted Ending Joke Undermines The Real Origin Of Pop-Tarts’ Frosting Idea
In the end, Jerry Seinfeld’s character Bob Cabana doesn’t give serious consideration to adding frosting to the Pop-Tarts. This goes against the true history the film is based on, because Seinfeld’s character is actually inspired by Bill Post, and Post was the one who suggested the idea of adding frosting in the first place. The main issue was finding a frosting that wouldn’t melt off in a toaster, but once they did, it was quickly added. While the change was obviously made to accommodate Seinfeld’s specific brand of comedyit also undercut the real-life origin of the Pop-Tarts, which was supposed to be at the heart of the film.