Doritos X-13D
I saw this Doritos package on the shelf back in May. I totally forgot that I took the photo until I ran across it while cleaning out the memory card on the phone. I took the photo because I thought it was another example of somebody trying to leverage what has been the marketing buzz word for the last few years: “the community” (or “user-generated content”). You were supposed to taste it, then tell the company what you think the flavor is. On one hand, the attempt to get on the bandwagon is pretty transparent — these days everyone wants you to submit your own story/photo/video and use it to market their product. But on the other hand, I think it’s pretty ballsy. The package design is dramatically different from their normal lineup, and instead it focuses on the “secret experiment” concept of the campaign. Plus they’re telling consumers to buy something without knowing what the flavor is. It’s like admitting that all their other flavors are just as artificial and lab-tested (which I’m sure most people realize but choose to ignore). I’ve always liked Doritos, and the main reason is probably because they never pretend to be the smart person’s snack. It’s the in-your-face, MSG-filled snack attack that you almost always regret later. With this campaign, it’s almost like they went a step further and were taunting the consumers. The secret flavor the X-13D experiment turned out to be cheeseburger. Brilliant! One heart-attack maker pretending to be another… An American classic wrapped up in a mystery… Correct guessers being celebrated as “winners”… The whole thing is so ironic I think the people who came up with the campaign should get an award!
