Care Bears were everywhere in the 1980s, so this was just a case of taking something that was already popular and turning it into a snack. It's a classic marketing ploy, and it's been used successfully many times before and since.
What nobody took into account is that the process of turning a Care Bear into a waffle shape made them look like the stuff of nightmares. Part of the reason we ate them so fast is that we didn't want to look at them.