Lay’s Chooses Sweet Over Salty for Potato Chip Pitch in Super Bowl
Frito-Lay is getting ready to turn traditional notions of potato-chip advertising into mash.
The snacking giant, part of PepsiCo., will run a minute-long Super Bowl commercial for its flagship Lay’s that will try to do for potatoes in the Big Game what Budweiser has done for Clydesdale horses and Chrysler did for an American plagued by recession.
More from Variety
Viewers who see the ad air during the third quarter of Fox’s Sunday broadcast of Super Bowl LIX will watch a cinematic tale of how a young girl on a potato farm grows her own tubers, even protecting them during an intense storm, so that she can contribute them to the family’s harvest for Lay’s. The commercial tells the audience that the potatoes used in Lay’s are “grown on family farms across America.”
Frito-Lay is the company behind the do-it-yourself ads for Doritos that have captured attention in Super Bowls past; wild and exotic snack flavors; and animated mascots like Chester Cheetah. None of those elements will be on display in the new Lay’s commercial, which tells an inspirational story without even a hint of dialogue.
“I’m really excited about seeing how people react to this,” says Chris Bellinger, chief creative officer for PepsiCo Foods, during a recent interview, “just because it’s so different from everything we’ve ever done.”
Most Super Bowl commercials rely on celebrity cameos, sophomoric jokes and ideas that nod to days gone by. A handful, however, break away from the usual in hopes of inspiring viewers to embrace new concepts or shatter traditional views. Apple continues to generate chatter for its landmark 1984 commercial that shows an athlete hurling a sledgehammer at propaganda video, waking citizens from a subdued state. Chrysler in 2011 and 2012 ran two-minute ads that urged viewers to take more pride in Detroit and the whole U.S. of A, enlisting Clint Eastwood in the second year to talk about “halftime in America.” Anheuser-Busch InBev used its famous Clydesdales in 2002 to mourn the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
Frito-Lay is testing the new vision for getting people interested in its signature potato chips amid a crowded field. Dozens of advertisers will use Super Bowl LIX to tout yogurt, soda, candy and beer. Pringles, a rival potato chip brand owned by Kellanova, will have its own commercial during the Big Game. And if that’s not enough, viewers will see ads for three different food-delivery services.
A story about where Lay’s comes from and the hard-working people who help make them may just break out from the pack, Bellinger suggests. “You know, a shocking number of people don’t know that potato chips are made from potatoes,” he says, and also don’t realize that the snack “wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for all these multi-generational farms.”
This isn’t the Lay’s the company served up in 2022, when Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd showed viewers how the chips helped get them bond through many dangerous episodes, including an abduction and a strange road trip.
But it is a Lay’s that thinks it can’t keep relying on the same strategies to court consumers.
The company came to a decision about the ad “late in the game,” says Bellinger, around November – a time when many Super Bowl advertisers have moved from choosing creative concepts to locking in celebrities, pop songs and other trappings. The story was inspired by actual farmers who provide potatoes to Lay’s, and going for emotion over laughs was something “we had a big discussion around: ‘This is going to feel really different for us. Are we OK to take a different approach?’”
The commercial uses actors, but Frito-Lay also tapped agriculture consultants to ensure they got the details right, and no fake spuds were used in the creation of this commercial. “There’s no CGI of potato plants,” he says. “Everything from the tubers that go into the ground to where she digs up the potato at the very end, and the vines and the roots. Those are all very real.”
Best of Variety
Sign up for Variety's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Solve the daily Crossword
