Marketers Are Idiots - Doritos Edition

As many people are aware, Doritos came up with an idea to have consumers create their own television commercials with a chance one would air during Super Bowl XLI. They claim to have gotten over 1000 entries, and the winner was a guy named Dale Buckus who made a commercial called Live the Flavor. It's a rather innocuous spot that centers on a guy getting into a car accident because he saw an attractive girl eating Doritos. She bangs her head on his car door when she comes to save him. Not very funny, but it's full of product attributes in bold supers, so I'm sure the people at Doritos thought it was great.

Time Magazine had an editorial related to this promotion in the February 12, 2007 edition written by James Poniewozik (Culture Complex - Customer, Sell Thyself).

Mr. Poniewozik accurately points out that the primary reason people entered this contest was to either get some prize money, or the fame that would come about from getting a commercial aired on the Super Bowl. He challenges the idea that a deep love of Doritos motivated anyone to shoot a spot for a snack food.

There is a quote in the article from Ann Mukherjee, the vice president of marketing at Frito-Lay. She says:

Our consumers have a need to express themselves and interact. We wanted to give them an opportunity to express their passion about how they interact with Doritos.

This is so sad! I don't know Ms. Mukherjee, but I certainly know her type. Marketing executives as the large packaged-goods companies actually talk this way, and I actually think they believe these kinds of ridiculous statements. People don't have a "passion" about snack chips. And they certainly don't have a need to tell the world how they "interact" with them!

When she says something like this in public, of course the press and anyone with a sixth-grade education thinks "what crap!" But in the executive offices at Frito-Lay they consider this kind of talk to be important to their existence. And I think they believe it - or at least they will never admit it if they don't.

As proof of their delusion, just take a look at the Doritos website. They call it "Snack Strong Productions" (complete with a trademark symbol) and claim "we are determined to take snacking to a higher level." No, I have no idea what that means either. Then, if you go deeper into the site - and I can't image why anyone would want to - you'll see that they have spent a huge amount of time and money creating an over-produced website that truly seems to expect that people ARE passionate about their chips. If you'd like, you can sign up to have them e-mail you with important information and news about Doritos products!

Sad, deluded and scared. Good luck, Ms. Mukerjee, you're going to need it if this is how you think Doritos should be marketed.