South Africa’s most playful snack brand, Cheetos becomes the official snack partner for Varsity Sport in a three-year deal built around campus energy and student culture.
For decades, campus football has been where South African student culture comes alive. Sunday matches, packed stands, the kind of noise that only a varsity crowd can make. Now Cheetos is stepping into that world, joining Varsity Sport as the official snack partner for both Varsity Football and the Varsity Cup, across the men’s and women’s competitions.
It’s a three-year commitment, and it kicks off properly this coming weekend, when the women’s competition marks the first official competition with Cheetos on board. The men’s Varsity Cup season follows in 2027.
Anouschka Swart, Varsity Cup Tournament Manager, puts the partnership down to a shared personality more than anything else. Cheetos is fun, she says, and that’s essentially what Varsity Sport and the Varsity Cup already are. As the preferred snack partner across both codes, Cheetos slots into a matchday experience students already know, and there’s an openness on both sides to seeing where things go once the first three years are up.
To mark the launch, Cheetos and Varsity Sport threw an activation that felt built for exactly this audience. It was Gen Z from the moment you walked in. Mascots from both Varsity Cup and Cheetos moved through the crowd, cheerleaders and dancers kept the energy up, games and a DJ turned the space into a dance floor, and the room was full of familiar faces from the content world and the football fraternity. The theme for the day was athleisure with a pop of fashionable orange, tying the room visually back to the brand.
Somewhere in the middle of it all were Cheetos’ varsity super fans, Tamzizi and Dedrick Bonolo, the two faces the brand has chosen to carry this partnership into campus culture.
Tamzizi’s story is the more personal one. She grew up in a football household, but oddly enough, that’s not where her love for the game actually took hold. That happened later, during her own student years living in Hatfield, watching Tuks play on Sunday afternoons. It’s why this campaign means more to her than just another brand deal.
She’s also, right now, the only woman among the Cheetos super fans. She’s aware of what that means. Her message to young girls watching is straightforward: don’t let anyone write you off as just a pretty face in a jersey. People notice. What actually matters is showing up consistently, putting in the work, and knowing your craft.
She stayed coy about what’s next but sounded genuinely excited. She’s hopeful about where this could take her, and more than that, what it could open up for the next generation of girls coming through. She teased something on the way, tied to Cheetos and the Varsity Cup, expected to land soon across national platforms. Whatever it is, she says it’s the kind of moment that reminds her this was never just about herself.
Cheetos settling into varsity sport isn’t just a sponsorship. It reads more like a bet on student culture itself, on the idea that if something’s genuinely fun, people will feel it. As the campaign’s own line puts it, you can’t hide the fun. #YouCantHideTheFun
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