- Rider Strong, best known as Shawn Hunter on Boy Meets World, has signed on with Simple Mills for a new '90s-themed campaign built around the brand's Snack Packs line.
- Strong says the pitch felt odd at first, but trying the products themselves is what sold him on it.
- Based on available reporting, this is Strong's first major standalone brand campaign and Simple Mills' first celebrity-fronted push.
- The deal lands as Simple Mills, now owned by Flowers Foods, works to raise its profile under new brand leadership.
Rider Strong is trading Shawn Hunter’s leather jacket for the snack aisle. The actor has partnered with Simple Mills on a campaign pitched around a simple idea: the ’90s had a flavor, and Simple Mills is bottling it.
Strong said the concept caught him off guard at first. He recalled being told there was a taste of the ’90s, an idea he hadn’t considered before trying the snacks himself and finding they brought back memories of that time.
The 46-year-old spent seven seasons as Shawn Hunter before reprising the role on Girl Meets World, and now revisits the series weekly on the podcast Pod Meets World alongside Danielle Fishel and a fellow original castmate; a project he’s credited with helping him make peace with being a symbol of ’90s nostalgia rather than resist it.
For Simple Mills, the timing is notable. The Chicago-based better-for-you brand was acquired by Flowers Foods for $795 million in a deal that closed in February 2025, and this past March the company named Michelle Lorge as president, succeeding founder Katlin Smith, who moved into an advisory role.
Leaning on a recognizable ’90s face for its Snack Packs, already sold at Target, Walmart, and Costco, marks a departure from the brand’s earlier campaigns, like “Live Full” and this summer’s ingredient-transparency push, “Announcing Absolutely Nothing,” both of which skipped celebrity casting entirely.
Strong isn’t the only one cashing in on decade-specific nostalgia this year. The Spice Girls fronted a Funko POP! collection timed to “Wannabe’s” 30th anniversary, while Priceline swapped longtime pitchman William Shatner for Randall Park to court younger, nostalgia-primed shoppers.
Even personal history is becoming a selling point elsewhere in food marketing, as when Rob Rausch’s own teenage job at Zaxby’s became the hook for that brand’s latest campaign.
Takeaways
This deal is a tidy example of a brand borrowing someone else’s decade instead of building its own. Simple Mills didn’t invent nostalgia marketing, but pairing an actual ’90s sitcom star with a snack pitched as tasting like the era is a more literal execution than most.
It’s also notable that Simple Mills, still finding its footing post-acquisition under new leadership, chose a low-risk, high-familiarity face over a bigger, pricier name.
For Strong, it’s a sign that the goodwill built by Pod Meets World has real commercial value beyond the podcast feed itself, turning nostalgia into an actual paycheck rather than just a talking point.
Does a genuine ’90s connection make a nostalgia campaign feel more credible than one with a paid spokesperson who has no real tie to the era? Could this open the door for more Boy Meets World alumni to land their own solo brand deals?
