As of this week, Pop-Tarts have been part of Americans' breakfasts—and, let's be honest, late-night snacks—for 50 years. What's remarkable about their reign (besides the fact that, despite an increasingly health-conscious public, sales of the Kellogg product have grown each of the past 32 years) is how little Pop-Tarts have changed since they were introduced in 1964. The rectangular shape? The shiny swipe of frosting? The smattering of sprinkles? Their ingredients may have changed; but today's Pop-Tarts look, at least, like the Pop-Tarts of yore.
Which doesn't mean that the Kellogg company hasn't tried to build on the success of its product. It has, many times. It's just that those attempts have, for the most part, failed. People like Pop-Tart classic, it seems; variations on a theme? Not so much.
Here are some of the attempts Kellogg has made to disrupt the Pop-Tart:
Pastry Swirls: Introduced in the 1990s, Pastry Swirls were essentially a knockoff of Toaster Strudels. They were larger and thicker than standard Pop-Tarts; they also had less icing. They were discontinued in 2001.
Snak-Stix: Introduced in 2002, these were meant to be portable Pop-Tarts. You could break apart the pieces into individual sticks—making, the thinking went, for an easy after-school snack. Snak-Stix were discontinued in 2003.