To tempt people into eating spicy gherkin-flavored snacks, the Frito-Lay folks need to move on from real pickles.
The problem is: Snack giant Frito-Lay is bringing back the Cheetos Flamin’ Hot Dill Pickle flavor version with Cheetos Flamin’ Hot Dill Pickle Puffs. To that end, the PepsiCo division wants to capture the attention of young consumers on social and digital media. There, interactive technology causes scrolling, swiping, and other short attention span behaviors.
How can the company get instant hit media mavens into its orbit?
Frito-Lay has tapped Megan Thee Stallion and Nickelback to co-produce a new music video that mixes winking humor, special effects and a remake of the band’s 2001 hit “How You Remind Me.” The Go For Broke concept, which includes high-tech heists, high-speed truck chases, and big explosions of Cheetos dust, illustrates the heights marketers must climb to capture consumer attention in a media arena that constantly offers new stimuli.
The idea is to not only get younger consumers to pay attention, but also to get them to tell their friends about the video, said Chris Bellinger, chief creative officer at PepsiCo Foods. “What we’ve experienced is that you can buy views, but you can’t buy likes and comments. And you definitely can’t buy stock,” the executive says. “I want to get a text message from someone and text someone else and say, ‘You need to check this out. I can’t believe what Cheetos did. I can’t believe Nickelback and Megan Thee Stallion are singing about Cheetos’ fiery hot dill pickles. Check this out.'” Yeah. It’s worth its weight in gold to us. ”
An eye-popping one-off commercial can certainly create a viral buzz. In 2003, Pepsi created a splash for the international market with a show-stopping commercial featuring Beyoncé, Britney Spears, and Pink dressed as Roman gladiators fighting in a coliseum to the sound of Queen’s “We Will Rock You.” Enrique Iglesias appeared as a cruel emperor whose plans were thwarted by musical warriors. Because this ad was not run through a US media buy, Americans became interested in this unusual collection of artists.
Frito-Lay first introduced Cheetos, a spicy dill pickle, as a limited-edition flavor last February. But pickles are a “polarizing flavor,” with equal numbers of devoted fans and detractors, Bellinger says. For those who like the snack, “it has that spicy element, but also the salty safety of dill pickles.” Bellinger said the original product packaging was sold out and was selling for $60 on eBay. Executives have noticed ongoing buzz about the flavor on social media, and Megan Thee Stallion is such a big fan that she was even spotted pairing Flamin’ Hot Cheetos with actual pickles in public.
Getting Megan Thee Stallion and Nickelback to work together wasn’t as difficult as it sounds. The request and combination was so unusual that both artists quickly agreed to participate, and the band took over songwriting duties after Frito-Lay staff first attempted a parody of the 2001 song themselves.
An even more outlandish element was added to the mix. Putting the song in the hands of experts, the commercial’s director, Dave Meyer, asked them to add other quirky elements, including a plot line in which Nickelback and Megan steal the new Cheetos from a safe and load them into a giant truck that doubles as a getaway vehicle. “It gave me more and more permission to keep doing crazy things out there,” Myers says.
Bellinger said Frito-Lay ultimately created a several-minute version of the video and a shorter cutdown. The goal is “not necessarily to have people buy the product on the spot, but to have them search for the entire song online, because we want this to be an earworm,” he says.
Frito-Lay has been raising the bar in video advertising in recent years, creating concepts that deserve special attention. For example, in 2019 the company launched a holiday commercial promoting a number of snacks, including Raffles and Tostitos. Anna Kendrick created her own version of “My Favorite Things,” with lyrics like “Eating Doritos on the big comfy couch” and “Family and Cheetos and Secret Santa.” In 2024, the company partnered with Disney’s ABC in a bold, high-profile move. Frito-Lay bought a third of ABC’s Friday national ad inventory, allowing the snack giant to air eight commercials for Lay’s potato chips and rebroadcast them. The commercial featured actor Stephen Tobolowsky experiencing a scenario similar to the one in the 1993 comedy “Groundhog Day.”
Bellinger hopes to continue to see significant growth in commercials. “The worst possible scenario is that no one pays attention,” he says. “And no one remembers what you did.”
