On December 28, 2023, a sacrifice was performed on live TV.

The Strawberry Pop-Tarts mascot, who was introduced Eras Tour-style at the Pop-Tarts Bowl, worked the crowd (and the refs) before willfully giving up its life at the end of the game via giant-toaster submersion. The victors from Kansas State then feasted on its body and left it looking like Harvey Dent.

Even before the ritual sacrifice began, it was clear this was a marketing stunt gone right based purely on engagement and affinity. Feeds were full of religious references, marketing jokes, fan edits, and more. The stunt now has its own page on Know Your Meme.

“It was a really fun, adventurous, bold campaign,” Ryan McConnell, EVP at Kantar, told us. While at times the playfulness and risk-taking can get “squeezed out” in corporate sports sponsorships, he thinks Pop-Tarts could pave the way for that to change.

How does one pull off something as risky as a mascot sacrifice? We spoke with Heidi Ray, senior director of brand marketing for Pop-Tarts (and subject of viral praise), about what made the stunt—which became the brand’s single-biggest earned campaign to date—possible.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Tell me about how the idea of a “mascot sacrifice” came to be and got executive sign-off.

Going into this, our two objectives were, “Okay, we got a bowl game. This is an opportunity for us to show that Pop-Tarts aren’t just a breakfast item. It’s an occasion-agnostic, anytime, anywhere treat.” Second, a lot of people know Pop-Tarts…but our top-of-mind awareness is low. So [we wanted to] use a big stage like this to really break through and remind people of that latent love for the brand and the food…Knowing the brand ethos of “crazy good,” it makes sense that we would come up with ideas around college football bowl rituals and turn them on their heads.

How do we challenge the conventions of bowl rituals?...We did that with concession mashups that brought our food front and center; we did that with the trophy; and we also did that with another very classic, iconic element of the game, which is the mascot.

We have to completely give credit to our Weber Shandwick partners for the edible mascot part of it all. It made so much sense when you think about where the brand comes from—a “crazy good” convention-challenging place—that we wouldn’t just do a regular old mascot, we would do something that takes it to 11.

Continue reading our conversation with Ray here.—KH

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As the rest of us are still trying to remember what our jobs are in the post-holiday haze, 130k CES attendees and exhibitors are gearing up for a big week ahead, both in size and scope.

With the festivities kicking off today in Las Vegas, all eyes are on the big-name companies slated to attend, like Google, Amazon, Meta, and TikTok. X, which Fidelity recently said has lost 71.5% of its value since Elon Musk purchased it, will have CEO Linda Yaccarino onsite. Wonder why Musk wasn’t sent to network with the advertisers…

Marketing Brew’s Alyssa Meyers will be on the ground reporting for us. As the event officially begins, here are the trends and discussions we’ll be watching this year:

• Whether AI will be marketers’ word of 2024 as much as it was in 2023. Companies like L’Oréal, John Deere, and Pinterest are expected to weigh in on new AI capabilities and uses at CES this year. Agencies like Publicis and Media Monks will also be discussing how AI could transform video and social media, with Stagwell unveiling new “AI-enabled” capabilities for client services at the event.
• What discussions around ad-supported streaming look like ahead of the release of Prime Video’s ad tier, which some predict could be the start of a 2024 streaming war. Disney is expected to release new ad formats for shoppable ads and social extensions at its CES Tech and Data Showcase.
• How sports marketing is continuing to evolve and adapt, particularly with buzzy moments like the recent Pop-Tart sacrifice or Taylor Swift-Travis Kelce brand activations in recent months. Intel is expected to weigh in on (you guessed it) AI as it relates to the 2024 Olympics; TikTok will speak on sponsorships in women’s sports; and Disney will discuss streaming and live sports during CES.
• How global events will affect the way advertisers discuss spending. Much of the pocketbook-clutching at CES last year came as a result of economic uncertainty. While a recession was avoided last year, some say a mild one could still be on the horizon.

Perhaps most importantly, we’re eager to know what (or who) will be on the Las Vegas Sphere during CES. We’re guessing the smiley face is getting the week off.—KH

TikTok Shop sellers in the US will soon see the platform take a bigger commission cut as it works to expand its fast-growing e-commerce business.

TikTok told sellers last week it’ll start increasing its commission from 2% to 8%, in addition to charging 30 cents per transaction, The Information reported.

The social media platform will also pull back on the subsidies it was offering some merchants, which allowed them to sell products at often extremely discounted prices, a source told the outlet. The Information reported in August that TikTok was expecting to lose more than $500 million in 2023, partly due to these subsidies.

The commission bump will be implemented gradually, with a 6% rate taking effect on April 1 before the 8% rate goes into effect on July 1. TikTok will take a smaller cut for more expensive items and some sales over $10,000. These changes are more closely aligned with, though still largely lower than, Amazon’s 8% to 20% commission, the outlet noted.

TikTok Shop, which debuted in September, has featured major brands such as Nyx and E.l.f.; its most popular categories include apparel, skin care, and hair care, Retail Brew previously reported. The shopping service has already established a $3 billion run rate in the US since its debut, putting it in potential competition with Amazon, as well as Shein and Temu.

A Bloomberg report this week claimed the company is hoping to grow its US e-commerce business to $17.5 billion this year, having held meetings in recent weeks to discuss the year’s sales goals. The outlet also reported that TikTok plans to expand TikTok Shop to Latin America this year. TikTok, however, told Bloomberg that the US merchandise sales figures it reported were “inaccurate.” The platform’s retail arm was on track to bring in ~$20 billion in global sales last year, thanks to sales in Southeast Asia, Bloomberg previously reported.—EC

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Executive moves across the industry.

• Linh Peters, the CMO of Walgreens, exited the role as part of a round of layoffs at the drugstore chain.
• Nathaniel Brown, Warner Bros. Discovery’s corporate comms chief, is stepping down.
• Melissa Rosenthal is the new CMO of meditation app Insight Timer. She was previously chief creative officer of productivity platform ClickUp.