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