Pepsi isn’t going to air any commercials during the Super Bowl this year, but Frito-Lay, the $12 billion unit of PepsiCo will, via their annual consumer generated Crash the Super Bowl campaign.
Last year, two unemployed brothers from Batesville, Indiana received $1million from the Frito-Lay’s Doritos brand for trumping the Madison Avenue-made commercials and ranking No. 1 in the USA TODAY Ad Meter with their homemade Doritos commercial that they created for less than $2,000.
This year, three consumer-created :30 Doritos spots chosen by fans on CrashtheSuperBowl.com will air during the Super Bowl XLIV broadcast. As an added incentive, Doritos will give the winners a shared $5 million cash bonus prize if the homemade ads claim the top three spots. Of course, the likelihood of that happening is pretty slim.
“Every year, we continue to be impressed with the talent our fans bring to the table,” said Rudy Wilson, vice president, marketing, Frito-Lay. “This year, however, Crash the Super Bowl achieved a new level of success with more than 4,000 entries coming from an incredibly wide range of ages, backgrounds and geographies, including entries with actual celebrities in them.”
In addition to sending the six finalists to this year’s Super Bowl in South Florida, Doritos is giving online voters a chance to get in on the action by giving away a pair of Super Bowl tickets every day of the voting period which ends on January 31st.