Doritos Super Bowl ‘Crash’ commercial hopefuls offer comedy and science fiction
Doritos are available in flavors ranging from Cool Ranch to Flamin’ Hot Limon. At Super Bowl LIX, however, the executives behind the popular chip will focus on a classic recipe.
Frito-Lay, the snack food giant that is part of PepsiCo, does relaunch of Doritos’ famous “Crash the Super Bowl” competition this year and has narrowed down thousands of entries to 25 semifinalists whose efforts to create a big-screen Super Bowl ad could pay off big time. All winners will have a chance to have their ad aired during the Big Game and win $1 million.
For PepsiCo and Frito-Lay, that will only increase the cost of playing in the Super Bowl. Fox, which plans to televise the big event on Feb. 9, has requested more than $7 million for ads of about 30 seconds.
While modern aspirants have all kinds of new technology at their disposal, ranging from high-tech smartphone cameras to a range of digital video editing tools, “I still think you have to have a great idea,” says Chris Bellinger, chief creative officer at PepsiCo’s food business. “It has to have a certain amount of shine. There has to be a certain amount of humor in it.”
Doritos is about to open a second chapter in its effort to cultivate winning Super Bowl ad concepts not from the nation’s major advertising agencies, but from the consumers they hope to attract. Many of the bids that have prevailed so far in the competition look as sophisticated as anything that could come from a Madison Avenue firm like BBDO, McCann Worldwide or Ogilvy.
One candidate has created a commercial in which three boys shrink themselves to ant size so they can enjoy the Doritos crumbs at the bottom of a bag. Another shows an older couple using one set of dentures to enjoy the snack they love. a lot of. A third uses science fiction as a backdrop and treats Dorito’s bold flavor as a living creature… that has escaped.
“It’s really cool because there are ideas coming out of the field, and they’re just so unique,” Bellinger says. “There are some areas you would never have thought about [Doritos] could be playing in this space, but they’re really funny. I saw a sci-fi spot and drama.”
The company will use an internal process to select the candidates. “You can imagine which stakeholders are involved,” says the director.
Frito-Lay will find out whether the do-it-yourself concept still appeals. The original ‘Crash’ debuted in 2007just as YouTube and what was once known as “user-generated content” were gaining traction among American consumers. Facebook was still in its relative infancy. Media outlets worried about whether they could air commercials and other content without expert production, and it looked “lo-fi.”
Still, by 2015 it was clear that the idea had run its course, even as the idea of letting individuals create popular content continued to flourish. Doritos turned to other ideas after a final startup salvo, when director Zack Synder agreed to help the top players. “It was clear at that moment that a shift was happening,” Bellinger says. More Super Bowl advertisers relied on celebrities, and “the long form became increasingly prolific” among Big Game sponsors. “We saw more 60s, more two minutes.” Doritos wanted to highlight new flavors and snack moments. In 2018, PepsiCo ran one ad promoting a new spicy version of Doritos and a new lemon-lime version of Mountain Dew.
A return in 2025 comes as the ability of individuals to create anything from a newsletter or podcast to an entire media empire has never been easier to develop. In 2007, an aspiring Doritos ad maker like Jared Cicon, then a wedding photographer, was seen as an outlier. Today, a smart creator could become a huge influencer in the Alex Cooper sense.
