Lay’s wants you to remember that it came from humble, homegrown beginnings. PepsiCo, which owns the chip giant, is giving the brand a makeover worthy of a movie montage: stripping its artificial dyes, updating the logo, and putting a potato right there on the packaging.
Remember the potatoes. New bags—matte-ified and designed to look like wood planks (like a potato crate)—will hold the chips with revamped ingredient lists. Lay’s promises that the baked, kettle-cooked, and original chips won’t taste different, they just won’t have any synthetic colors or flavors:
- The redesign will also incorporate a new logo that looks like the sun, photos of potatoes on the bag, and the phrase “Made with real potatoes.”
- A 2021 survey found that 42% of consumers didn’t know Lay’s were made out of the spuds.
- The changes come as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pushes companies to ditch artificial ingredients.
Big picture: Lay’s generates about 60% of PepsiCo’s annual sales but has seen sales slip every quarter for the last three years. Consumers in every income bracket have been ditching classic snack brands amid rising prices.—MM
This report was originally published by Morning Brew.