Why Lay's New Chips Are A Total Game-Changer
If you procrastinated before your football watch party and forgot you were supposed to bring a snack, a bag of chips is always a welcome addition. To remind people that chips are a tasty and convenient (if not also loved) option to have at tailgates or watch parties, Lay's has done a few memorable marketing campaigns over the years. According to Ledger Insights, they launched the "Smile with Lays" campaign in 2018, which featured smiling faces on every bag and a donation with every purchase to Operation Smile, an international children's medical charity.
The smile-themed campaign continued into 2020 when the company put what they called "Everyday Smilers" onto chip bags — i.e. using selfies from people as a counterpart to masked faces — notes Marketing Dive. In September 2021, Lay's Romania continued the campaign in a new way, with a non-fungible token (NFT) project utilizing the help of digital asset platform Project Ark to feature an arrangement of over 3,000 smiles, says BakeryandSnacks.com. It's clear that Lay's is not afraid to get creative with their marketing campaigns, and their latest one, centered around the Super Bowl, is no exception.
The potatoes for these Lay's chips are grown with soil from NFL stadiums
Lay's went for a bit of a deep cut with their new "Golden Grounds" Chips campaign and, honestly, we are here for it. According to Food & Wine, the chip giant has not advertised during the Super Bowl for the past 17 years, so they are making their comeback in 2022 with this highly conceptual campaign. To solidify their spot as the go-to chip for Super Bowl viewers, Lay's took soil from NFL stadiums across the country and mixed it with the soil on their potato farms to helm special spuds "grown in glory." The farmers were careful to separate the different soil into sections for each team's yield, because naturally there would be uproar if the soil from the Packers' and Bears' fields was mixed together (via YouTube).
Once the potatoes were fully grown, they were transformed into 200 bags of Lay's signature crispy chips with each team's respective logo. If you're a Broncos, Bengals, or Browns fan, unfortunately there are no chips for you — and Lay's doesn't really have an explanation for it. Since there are only 200 bags of these "Golden Grounds" Chips, they will not be available in stores. If you want to secure a bag, follow Lay's on Twitter to enter the Golden Grounds sweepstakes until January 25. The company told Food & Wine that fans can respond to the Tweets showing love for their favorite NFL team and to use #LaysGoldenGrounds, #Sweepstakes, and the official hashtag of their favorite team to help up their chances.