- Doritos is once again asking fans to submit their ideas for a Super Bowl ad in the return of its “Crash the Super Bowl” contest, which will award one idea a spot on the big game and its creator $1 million.
- The brand had previously run the contest for ten years, between 2006 and 2016, and received more than 30,000 submissions over that time. The resultant spots were among the top five in USA Today’s Ad Meter every year and had topped the list four times.
- The brand is promoting the contest with a marketing campaign that will feature two former Crash the Super Bowl finalists, as well as an out-of-home effort that will showcase fan criticisms of the brand’s previous Super Bowl ads.
Nostalgia in marketing is all the rage right now, so it should come as no surprise that Doritos is bringing back its “Crash the Super Bowl” contest to entice fans once again. After all, the previous campaign yielded some of the brand’s most memorable commercials – and drew some of the most social media responses.
“When Doritos originally launched this campaign nearly 20 years ago, it was the first of its kind, giving fans previously unheard-of creative control and ownership of our brand – and on the biggest advertising stage of the year,” said Tina Mahal, senior vice president of marketing at PepsiCo Foods North America, in a release. “We still firmly believe that the best ideas arise when we are willing to be bold, take risks and champion our fans. Now that our fans have more access than ever to creative and ad-making tools, we can’t wait to see what they have up their sleeves.”
The brand is introducing the contest with a campaign that references both the previous contest and the fans’ reactions to some of the spots. In one ad, the goat from the “Goat 4 Sale” commercial watches part of the old spot on television before turning to the camera and referencing how “everyone loved it.” When the goat is confronted with a social media response that proclaims the ad “so dumb.” The goat returns to his previous destructive ways before challenging others to do better.
A second spot features one of the stars from the old Super Bowl commercial “Slap.” He recalls the pain of filming the spot, in which a young child slaps him hard, but says a comment calling the spot “as funny as a migraine headache” was more painful. He challenges others to do better.
Both commercials were directed by Ben Callner, who submitted the original Goat 4 Sale spot.
Doritos’ Crash the Super Bowl contest will accept submissions through November 11 through its contest website, DoritosCrash.com. (The site also includes a creators’ tool kit including music, logos and other brand assets.) The brand will select the top 25 submissions and then winnow that down to three finalists in January. Fans will vote for their favorite, and the creator of the spot will win $1 million and an all-expenses paid trip to New Orleans for the Super Bowl on February 9, 2025.
