Yahoo Finance Why Doritos is ditching its iconic logo in a new campaign
Frito-Lay is betting big on brand recognition.
The PepsiCo (PEP)-owned company has a new campaign for its popular snack, Doritos. It features an ad without a key feature: The logo.
“Truthfully, you don’t need more than five seconds to nail this because it’s so iconic,” branding expert and founder of global advertising platform BigEyedWish, Ian Wishingrad told YFi PM.
Looking to appeal to a generation that steers away from consumer sales pitches, Frito-Lay recently unveiled an ad — minus the brand — to appeal to under-21 consumers turned off by advertising.
The demographic known as Generation Z has grown up mostly using ad-free platforms like Netflix (NFLX). “When you’re talking about Gen Z, they don’t watch long format TV in this respect,” he said.
And while the viewers will see clues throughout the ad, such as the orange dust the snack leaves on your fingers and the chips triangular shape, the word “Doritos” is never shown.
Gen Z “is different as every other generation as we are from Baby Boomers. There’s no antipathy towards brands, they just need to communicate in the right way to the right consumer,” Wishingrad said.
Doritos will also be renaming its website from “Doritos.com” to “LogoGoesHere.com,” and removing all digital mentions of the brand in an attempt to fit in with Gen Z.
The changes aren’t permanent, but they mimic other companies like Starbucks (SBUX) and Mastercard (MA), which saw a bump in brand awareness from similar ad campaigns.
When it comes to the ad itself, Wishingrad says the idea was genius, but the execution was a letdown, he told Yahoo. He compared it to a TV commercial, rather than a digital branding campaign that often resonates better.
“Just the act itself was the right move to do,” he said. “Do it, don’t tell people you’re doing it.”
McKenzie DeGroot is a producer at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter: @degrootmckenzie
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