PLANO, Texas -- It's a widely known fact that millions of people watch the Super Bowl for the commercials. But at least one key advertiser—Frito-Lay—has confirmed it will be sitting on the sidelines in 2017.
PepsiCo's Frito-Lay division, whose Doritos brand has been a loyal and popular Super Bowl advertiser, is taking a pass after a 10-year run with its Crash the Super Bowl ad contest. (See the 2016 winning ad below.)
The Doritos streak began in 2007, when it ran the first ad in the contest. A Frito-Lay spokesman confirmed to Ad Age that the division will not try to follow up Crash with something else, at least not during the 2017 Super Bowl, which will be played Feb. 5 at NRG Stadium in Houston.
"There are no plans for Frito-Lay brands to advertise during the upcoming Super Bowl as it did not fit with our marketing plans; however, we continue to enjoy a great partnership with the NFL that connects multiple brands within PepsiCo," a Frito-Lay spokesman confirmed in an email. Frito-Lay, a division of PepsiCo, is based in Plano, Texas.
The contest had grown into a Super Bowl advertising mainstay. The winning ads typically featured pet tricks and sight gags, but the spots scored well almost every year in ad-ranking services. The winning spots earned top-five rankings on the USA Today Ad Meter every year, including four No. 1 rankings. Ad-scoring firm Ace Metrix ranks Doritos No. 1 on its list of the most effective Super Bowl advertised brands from 2010-2015, ahead of Pepsi, Coke and Budweiser, and other brands that typically use big-name ad agencies.
The contest "took the control of Super Bowl advertising out of the hands of Madison Avenue ad executives and put it into the hands of everyday consumers," Doritos said last year when it announced it would be ending the contest. It said the company handed out more than $7 million in prize money over the years and had some 32,000 consumer submissions.
"We've had a tremendous run with the program," Jeff Klein, VP of brand marketing at PepsiCo, said in a statement last year. "The Doritos brand sparked a marketing industry in terms of crowdsourcing. Crash the Super Bowl has played a major role in legitimizing consumer content."
Frito-Lay parent company PepsiCo will have a Super Bowl 2017 presence via Pepsi's sponsorship of the halftime show starring Lady Gaga. Pepsi is using the halftime show to spotlight its Pepsi Zero Sugar variety. The soda brand has not yet confirmed any ad plans beyond the sponsorship.
Members help make our journalism possible. Become a CSP member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.