As a prank, Kyle Scheele worked with friends to create a cutout of himself jamming out with a pizza guitar that advertised a fake “Kyle Scheele Meal.” Then he placed it inside his local gas station in Springfield, Missouri.
He wanted to see how long it would be before the store caught on and removed the massive cutout. After all, the meal wasn’t real.
But millions of TikTok views later, the cutout’s popularity has inspired a real life “Kyle Scheele Meale” that will benefit a charitable cause.
It’s set to be available Kum & Go stores, Scheele said Friday.
The meal will include a 12 oz. Red Bull and a pizza sandwich, “which is just two pieces of pizza smashed face-to-face,” Scheele said.
The meal will cost $5 and from now until Thanksgiving, Kum & Go will donate $2 of every meal, up to $10,000, to the charity No Kid Hungry. Scheele reported that Red Bull said they will match the donation total.
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“In one week we took this from a crazy idea to a real thing that’s really going to help real people,” Scheele said in his TikTok video.
The cutout grew to be so popular that Scheele, a Springfield author and motivational speaker, said that one person called and told him, “There’s a line of people here waiting to take selfies with your sign.”
Kum & Go and other major brands soon began weighing in.
While the convenience store chain teased actually creating the meal, plenty of well-known companies tried to get in on the action.
Scheele said Uno, Nerf, Adobe and the Denver Nuggets were just a few who threw their hats in the ring. Eventually, Kum & Go themselves reached out to get the ball rolling.
Scheele said the company said, “How about a pizza sandwich?”
“That’s so crazy it just might work,” Scheele said he thought.
Most of the brand accounts that jumped in the fray didn’t naturally have a food connection, until Red Bull made an appearance with the post, “Is it really a meal without wings?”
“From the bottom of my heart, thank you guys for everything you’ve done this week,” Scheele said. “Without this incredible groundswell of ridiculous, insane support, I don’t think any of this would have happened.”