The Inventor of the Pop-Tart Won’t Live to See Jerry Seinfeld Ruin His Legacy

Sad news in the world of frosted garbage food, William “Bill” Post, the man who is credited as the inventor of the Pop-Tart, passed away this week at the age of 96. He is survived by his children, grandchildren and millions of stoned teenagers all across the world. After all, who doesn’t love Pop-Tarts? They’re tasty, convenient and, if 1980s commercials are to be believed, a potent aphrodisiac.

According to his obituary, Post began working for Hekman (which later became the Keebler Company) when he was only 21. Decades later, he was tasked by Kellogg’s to “create a new product they had in mind,” resulting in the Pop-Tart. While Post is often credited as the inventor of the Pop-Tart, he was also happy to admit that it was really the product of the “amazing team” he assembled. Still, Post went on “tell the Pop-Tart story to young people in countless classrooms,” presumably fulfilling American schools’ “sugary breakfast treat” curriculum requirement. 

Weirdly, Post’s death comes just months before his legacy is seemingly set to be completely upended by the Netflix movie Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story, Hollywood’s latest attempt to turn the creation of a familiar product into a feature film. The director, co-writer and star of Unfrosted is none other than Jerry Seinfeld, who previously waxed poetic about Pop-Tarts in his stand-up act. 

Per Netflix, the movie will be about Kellogg’s competing against their “sworn cereal rival” Post. As we’ve mentioned before, the Pop-Tart concept, delivered to William Post by Kellogg’s, was actually created by Post (the company, not the guy). They invented a new food preservation technology and came up with “Country Squares,” which were later renamed “Toast’em Pop Ups.” Kellogg’s then copied the idea, but were ultimately more successful in their branding efforts.

Billed as a “tale of ambition, betrayal, sugar and menacing milkmen” it seems as though Seinfeld’s movie is going to give the controversy behind the creation of Pop-Tarts some actual mainstream attention when it’s released this spring. 

It’s unclear if William Post himself will be a character in the movie, but judging from the only publicity photo that’s been released to the public so far, Unfrosted will be a decidedly goofy affair. I mean, just look at the facial expressions of Seinfeld and co-stars Jim Gaffigan, Mellissa McCarthy and Fred Armisen. Also, upon closer inspection, Armisen’s character just gave rubber stamp approval to a product called “Trat-Pop”?

While the late William Post won’t be able to see how he comes off in Seinfeld’s take on the Pop-Tarts story, at least he got to see his creation publicly gain sentience then gleefully sacrifice its life to be devoured by a horde of college football players. 

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