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Doritos (Template:Pron-en) is a brand of flavored tortilla chips produced since 1964 by the American food company Frito-Lay (a division of PepsiCo, Inc.). Doritos are sold in many countries worldwide in assorted flavors. The chips are made of ground corn, corn oil, and seasoning.

The brand's marketing campaigns have included many television commercials featuring Avery Schreiber, Jay Leno, and Ali Landry, as well as product placement in movies, such as Wayne's World and has also sponsored the presidential campaign of Stephen Colbert.

History

When they were released in the United States in 1964, they became the first tortilla chip to be launched nationally.

According to Information Resources International, in 1993, Doritos earned $1.3 billion in retail sales, one-third of the total Frito-Lay sales for the year. This made the chip the leading seller in the snack category, which also comprises cookies, crackers, cakes, and candies. Nevertheless, in the costliest redesign in Frito-Lay history, in 1994 the company spent $50 million to redesign Doritos to make the chips 20% larger and 15% thinner. Roger J. Berdusco, the vice president of tortilla chip marketing, said a primary reason for the change was " greater competition from restaurant-style tortilla chips, that are larger and more strongly seasoned". The design change was the result of a two-year market research study that involved 5,000 chip eaters. The new design gave each chip rounded corners, making it easier to eat and reducing the scrap resulting from broken corners. Each chip was also given more seasoning, resulting in a stronger flavor. The improved chips were released in four flavors beginning in January 1995.

Frito-Lay eliminated trans-fats from all Doritos varieties in 2002. The same year, the Doritos brand began complying with U.S. Food and Drug Administration labeling regulations, four years before the regulations became mandatory.

The company was sued in 2003 by Charles Grady, who claimed that his throat had been damaged because of eating Doritos. According to him, the shape and rigidity of the chips made them inherently dangerous. Grady attempted to admit into evidence a study by a former chemistry professor that calculated how best to safely swallow the chips. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court later ruled that the study did not meet scientific standards and could not be presented as evidence.

In 2005, Dorito sales in the United States fell by 1.7% to $595 million. To increase sales in 2006, the company launched several new flavors, a new label, and more bilingual advertising. Frito-Lay vice president Joe Ennen described this as ""the most significant rebranding and relaunch in Doritos' 38-year history".

The name "Doritos" means "little bits of gold" in Spanish.

Flavors (United States)

The first flavor of Doritos was Toasted Corn followed by Taco flavor. However, the brand had its biggest hit with Nacho Cheese flavor, introduced in the early 1970s. More than a dozen flavors/varieties of Doritos have been produced, but the longest lasting are Nacho Cheese and Cool Ranch.

"Doritos Collisions," which include two different flavors in the same bag, have been produced. The five varieties of Doritos Collisions are Hot Wings/Blue Cheese, Zesty Taco/Chipotle Ranch, Habanero/Guacamole, Cheesy Enchilada/Sour Cream, and Pizza Cravers/Ranch.

In the 1990s, in partnership with parent company PepsiCo's fast food brands, two new flavors of Doritos were introduced, Taco Bell's Taco Supreme and Pizza Hut's Pizza Cravers. After PepsiCo spun off its restaurant division in 1997, the flavors were simply renamed Taco (quite different than the original 1960s "Taco") and Pizza, respectively, with the Pizza flavor discontinued in some markets. In certain parts of the country, the available Taco flavor is the same as the Taco Supreme flavor and Pizza Cravers, minus the Pizza Hut connection, are featured in the current Collisions flavor Pizza Cravers/Ranch. In 2008 the original, pre-Taco Supreme Taco flavor was re-released under the "Back by Popular Demand" label along with Four Cheese.

In 2007 Doritos ran a campaign called "Doritos X-13D Flavor Experiment" where black, unidentified bags of Doritos were on the market for consumers to identify and name the flavor. The only flavor identification on these chips was "All American Classic". The flavor was later identified as cheeseburger.

In 2008, Doritos debuted a "mystery flavor" Quest with prizes being given as puzzles are solved. The mystery flavor was Mountain Dew.

In 2009, Doritos released two new flavors under the banner Doritos Late Night: Tacos at Midnight and Last Call Jalapeno Poppers.

Promotion

Super Bowl

For many years, Doritos advertised heavily during the Super Bowl. According to Thomas L. Harris's Value-Added Public Relations, "the most-used single video news release of 1995" was a Doritos Super Bowl Commercial featuring recently-defeated US state governors Mario Cuomo and Ann Richards. The pair were discussing change and the ad ended with viewers aware that the change they referred to was not political, but rather a new packaging for Doritos. The ad generated a great deal of publicity before it ever ran and much discussion afterwards. The governors later parodied their ad; when they were interviewed on the CBS news program 60 Minutes, the two were often seen eating Doritos.

In 1998, Doritos cast former Miss USA Ali Landry in a new Super Bowl Commercial. The ad featured Landry as a customer in a laundromat who catches Doritos chips in her mouth. The ad was such a success that Frito-Lay signed Landry, who became known as "The Doritos Girl", to a three-year contract. Landry described the ad as "the best thing that ever happened in my career — and that includes becoming Miss USA."

For Super Bowl XLI, Doritos launched a contest, Crash the Super Bowl, to allow consumers to create their own Doritos commercial. The general public was allowed to vote for their favorite of five finalists. According to Doritos, the vote was so close that just before the game the company decided to run two of the ads rather than just one. Both commercials finished highly in ratings of commercials during this Super Bowl. The following year, Doritos sponsored a contest to find a musician to feature in a Super Bowl ad. Although the ad, featuring winner Kina Grannis, generated a lot of publicity, it ranked last in popularity among the program's ads.

For Super Bowl XLIII, Doritos relaunched the fan-created commercials, with the winning vote going to the "Free Doritos" ad, which featured an office worker with a snow globe (believing it to be a crystal ball) "predicting" that everyone in the office would get free Doritos, then subsequently throws the snow globe into a vending machine selling nothing but Nacho Cheese & Cool Ranch Doritos. The commercial was ranked by the USA Today Super Bowl Ad Meter as the best ad for the year, earning the creators of the ad - Joe and Dave Herbert - a US $1 million prize. They again aired two ads during the game ads and the second place ad also placed in the top five according to USA Today. This ad featured a guy who discovers that each crunch from his bag of doritos causes whatever is on his mind to become reality (until he runs out of chips). Another popular commercial from the group of finalist included an executive making a presentation to other executives on a new (fictional) Doritos flavor called "Doritos Beer", which, as the name implies, is beer-flavored Doritos, with each chip containing enough alcohol as an equivalent of a 16 ounce can of beer. The executive making the presentation, eating the beer-flavored chips, ends up drunk on the chips and is down to his underwear and a tie by the end of the commercial. For Super Bowl XLIV, three ads will be entered, and should one all three commercials sweep the top three positions in that year's Ad Meter contest, all of the creators will be richer to the tune of US $5 million, broken down as $1 million for first place, $600,000 for second and $400,000 for third, plus each maker would get an additional $1 million.

For the Super Bown XLIII as aired in Canada, Doritos aired the "Chip Hat" commercial advertising their new "unidentified flavour" chip flavour that offers a prize of CDN $25,000 + 1% of all associated sales to someone that can both name, and create an ad for the new flavour. The new winning name, Scream Cheese (or, in French, Fromage Fracassant), was submitted by Ryan Coopersmith of Montreal.

Other

Most recently, Doritos has embarked upon an "out-of-this-world" advertising campaign, literally beaming a 30 second advertisement for Doritos brand tortilla chips into a solar system 42 light years away. This project is in collaboration with EISCAT Space Centre in Svalbard, Norway. The "You Make It, We'll Play It" contest chose the winning advertisement that was transmitted on June 12, 2008. The ad was beamed towards a distant star, within the Ursa Major constellation, that is orbited by planets which may harbor life.

Doritos was the main sponsor of Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. for the 2002/03 and 2003/04 seasons, the latter of which was spent in the English Premier League. Doritos officially sponsored the "Hail to the Cheese Stephen Colbert's Nacho Cheese Doritos 2008 Presidential Campaign Coverage." The money given to Colbert could not be used to directly fund his campaign, so he used the money to fund The Colbert Report. He claimed that he would not use his show to plug Doritos, but plugged the chips during these claims. After the campaign flopped, Colbert joked that his "body will stop producing bright orange waste." In March 2008, Colbert partnered with Doritos, specifically the Spicy Sweet Chili flavor, to promote his Philadelphia-based coverage of the Pennsylvania primaries. Doritos sponsored Super Bowl halftime shows in the 1990s.

Animal ingredients

Some Frito-Lay brand seasoned products, including some flavors of Doritos, contain beef enzymes in addition to herbs, cheese and other seasonings. Frito-Lay's website states that they use enzymes from cows (beeftin enzymes) in some of their seasoned snack chip products to develop "unique flavors". Some flavors of Doritos include carmine coloring, derived from the cochineal insect.

See also

• Corn chip

References

1. ^ "PepsiCo's History Timeline". Retrieved 2007-07-02.
2. "Avery Schreiber, 66, Doritos Funnyman". Retrieved 2007-07-02.
3. ""Doritos Girl" Ali Landry Scorejgdhdfhs A Three-peat at Super Bowl XXXV in New Doritos Commercial". Retrieved 2007-07-02.
4. "Memorable quotes for Wayne's World (IMDB)". Retrieved 2007-07-02.
5. ^ Collins, Glenn (November 3, 1994), "Pepsico Pushes a Star Performer", New York Times, retrieved 2008-11-12
6. ^ Collier, Gene (January 7, 2004), "An expert weighs in on the Dorito case", Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Pittsburgh, PA, retrieved 2008-11-12
7. Van Riper, Tom (January 9, 2006), "PepsiCo to Zest Up Doritos Campaign", Forbes, retrieved 2008-11-12
8. "Collisions page at Doritos.com". Collisions.doritos.com. Retrieved 2009-07-15.
9. Doritos' X-13D web page (formerly at x13d.doritos.com)
10. Koski, Genevieve. "Taste Test: Mountain Dew "Quest" Doritos". A.V. Club. Retrieved 2009-07-15.
11. Harris (1999), p. 112.
12. Horovitz, Bruce (February 1, 2002), "From zero to hero in 30 seconds flat", USAToday, retrieved 2008-11-12
13. Elliott, Stuart (February 6, 2007), "Thanks to the Web, the Scorekeeping on the SUper Bowl has just begun", New York Times, retrieved 2208-11-12 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
14. Viskowitz, Susan (February 16, 2008), "Super Bowl boosts digital sales for Petty and others", Washington Post, retrieved 2008-11-12
15. January 27, 2009 (2009-01-27). "Doritos Super Bowl XLIII Commercial: Free Doritos!". YouTube. Retrieved 2009-07-15.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
16. "null". Editorandpublisher.com. 2009-04-16. Retrieved 2009-07-15.
17. January 27, 2009 (2009-01-27). "Doritos Super Bowl XLIII Commercial: New Flavor Pitch". YouTube. Retrieved 2009-07-15.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
18. Doritos Ad Contest Raises The Stakes, Bruce Horowitz, USA TODAY, 09-10-09
19. January 29, 2009 (2009-01-29). "Doritos Guru - Talking Toys". YouTube. Retrieved 2009-07-15.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
20. "Become the Doritos Guru". Doritosguru.ca. 2009-04-05. Retrieved 2009-07-15.
21. Highfield, Roger (2008-03-07). "UK astronomers to broadcast adverts to aliens - Telegraph". Telegraph. Retrieved 2009-07-15.
22. "Colbert video from Comedy Central". Indecision2008.com. 2007-10-18. Retrieved 2009-07-15.
23. "Doritos still the word for Colbert". Retrieved 2008-03-20.
24. "For the First Time-Ever 'The Colbert Report' Hits the Road - 'The Colbert Report: Dorito's Spicy Sweet Pennsylvania Primary Coverage From Chili-Delphi". Retrieved 2008-04-04.
25. "Seasoned Products Made Without Beeftin Enzymes". Frito-Lay. 2009-03-25. Retrieved 2009-07-15.

Bibliography

• Harris, Thomas L. (1999), Value-Added Public Relations, McGraw-Hill Professional, ISBN 9780844234120
• Smith, Andrew F. (2006), Encyclopedia of Junk Food and Fast Food, Greenwood Publishing Group, ISBN 9780313335273
• Stalk, George; Lachenauer, Rob; Butman, John (2004), Hardball: Are You Playing to Play or Playing to Win?, Harvard Business Press, ISBN 9781591391678

External links

• Doritos America
• Doritos Collisions

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