Doritos Is At It Again!

I just saw a TV commercial for Doritos. I pretty much couldn't believe my eyes. It was some overly produced animated "fight" between two new flavors of Doritos chips. "Only one will survive!", it claimed. And then it encouraged the viewer to go to Doritos' website to vote for your favorite.

So I went there. (You can too if you truly have nothing better to do...click here.) They call it "Snack Strong Productions" - whatever that's supposed to mean. You need to create a screen name and an account in order to fight for your favorite flavor. They encourage you to make your name funny, but keep it clean. Such pressure! So I created an account and was presented with an option to fight with Wild White Nacho or Smokin' Cheddar BBQ. I picked Smokin' Cheddar BBQ and got ready to "Fight for the Flavor."

I can't believe how lame it got after this - if that's at all possible. You are matched against another "fighter" (there were 54 people logged on when I made my visit) and you fight another bag of Doritos. Yes, you are one bag - your opponent is the other - and you kick and punch each other until one runs out of energy. It's Mortal Kombat with Doritos bags! Instead of blood, occasionally some chips fly across the screen. My opponent - Baglady - kicked my butt because she pinned me up against the ropes and wouldn't let me move.

This is one of the stupidest, most pathetic attempts and marketing that I think I have ever seen. Who the hell cares if one flavor of Doritos "survives" and another is killed because people go online and "fight" one another. Isn't the idea to get people to BUY Doritos? How does this translate into an online fighting game with bags of chips duking it out? Yeah, I know - "viral marketing", right? Where everyone talks about this cool stuff you can do at the Doritos website?

Sorry...it's just plain lame. But I really, really, really hope Smokin' Cheddar BBQ wins!