Chester (the Cheetos mascot) will be suiting up for the big game as Frito-Lay?snack division of PepsiCo?purchased a 30-second ad spot for Cheetos during NBC?s live telecast of Super Bowl XLIII.
The commercial will air during the first half of the game. The ad is part of Frito Lay?s new strategy, which is to reach more adult consumers. Although Cheetos is seen as a kid?s snack, statistics say that these cheese curls have a large adult following. In fact, over 60 percent of Cheetos fans are over 18 years old.
The spot for Sunday was made the Omnicom Group, Silverstein & Partners. It dabs around subversive commercial themes.
It opens with a chatty woman talking on her cell phone outside a restaurant. And a female customer behind her becomes agitated. The annoyed female is egged by Chester as she scatters a bag of Cheetos on the floor. After that, a flock of pigeons attack the Cheetos crumbs, attacking the chatty woman in the process. Then the ad shows Chester saying, ?Give daddy a kiss? to one of the pigeons. The bird hops onto Chester?s shoulder and pecks him on the nose. The general message of the ad is to ?Let loose at Cheetos.com.?
As of late, Cheetos has increased ad spending. In the first eleven months of 2008, the brand spent $13M on US traditional media outlays compared to $8M for the whole of 2007.