Frito-Lay to Run Three Ads During the Super Bowl

Count Frito-Lay in—times three. PepsiCo's snack subsidiary plans to air three spots during the 2021 Super Bowl, scheduled to broadcast Feb. 7 on CBS: One for Doritos, one for Cheetos and, for the first time, a portfolio spot featuring several brands. The trifecta gives Frito-Lay what the company called its broadest Super Bowl presence to date. Although the company didn’t disclose many details of the spots at this juncture, the Doritos ad will focus on its Doritos 3D Crunch line from the ‘90s. The Cheetos commercial will promote its new Cheetos Crunch Pop Mix, a combination of Cheetos Crunchy and Cheetos Popcorn. A spokesperson said information pertaining to ad length and the creative agencies involved in the process wasn't available at this time. The portfolio spot, which involves a campaign leading up to the big game, will showcase the most NFL players PepsiCo has ever put into a single commercial. Viewers can expect to see the likes of Troy Aikman, Deion Sanders and brothers Peyton and Eli Manning. To help kickoff the season in September, Frito-Lay debuted a similar multi-brand spot that included several NFL players from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski to the Dallas Cowboys’ Dak Prescott and Ezekiel Elliott. Bags of Frito-Lay’s Tostitos, Doritos, Cheetos and Lay's also made appearances. Both Doritos and Cheetos aired spots in last year's Super Bowl. Doritos ran a 60-second spot created by Goodby Silverstein & Partners starring Sam Elliott and Lil Nas X facing off for a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos. Another commercial for the then-new Cheetos Popcorn, also from Goodby Silverstein & Partners, showed a man able to avoid undesirable errands and tasks due to the red and orange dust—known as “cheetle”—covering his fingers. MC Hammer’s '90s hit “U Can’t Touch This” played in the background. It was Cheetos' first Super Bowl ad in over a decade. Changes in consumption Shifts in shopper behavior during the pandemic have both helped and hurt PepsiCo’s top line. An increase in at-home dining has boosted revenue for its snacks and packaged-food units, while restaurant and stadium closures have decreased soda sales. Following a year-over-year drop in net revenue during its second quarter, PepsiCo rebounded reporting a 5.3% gain in sales during its third quarter. While Frito-Lay typically produces 600 million pounds of product in the six weeks leading up to Super Bowl Sunday, this year the company plans on making more to meet the growth in demand. Frito-Lay notes the Super Bowl is its “second biggest eating day of the year,” behind Thanksgiving. Recently, Pepsi announced plans to turn this year’s Super Bowl Halftime Show, featuring The Weeknd, into a national ad campaign involving a TV spot, new website and limited-edition product packaging. The brand itself, however, will not air an in-game ad for the first time since 2017. Along with a handful of other brands, PepsiCo's Mountain Dew has announced it will run a commercial during the upcoming match. CBS is charging as much as $5.5 million to air a 30-second spot during the big game. That’s slightly down compared to last year’s broadcast on Fox when the network asked for up to $5.6 million. For all the latest Super Bowl advertising news—who’s in, who’s out, teasers, full ads and more—check out Adweek’s Super Bowl 2021 Ad Tracker and the rest of our stories about the Big Game. And join us on the evening of Feb. 7 for the best in-game coverage of the commercials anywhere.

Super Bowl Commercials

Frito-Lay to Run Three Ads During the Super Bowl

Expect Cheetos, Doritos and a whole lot more

Paul Hiebert

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