There's a certain guilty pleasure in tearing open a snack packet and working your way through a mountain of flavor-coated chips until there's nothing left but crumbs at the end and flavouring on your fingers; which are obviously licked clean too. Notice that I didn't use any gendered pronouns there - that men or women in particular like this activity, because devouring chips somewhat messily is something most of the general population enjoys doing. And let's face it, is there really a polite way to eat a bag of chips?
PepsiCo appears to think there is, or could be. Few days ago, PepsiCo CEO. Indra Nooyi was in conversation with podcast Freakonomics as part of their special series 'The Secret Life of C.E.O's'. The topics varied across her upbringing in India and overhauling the company's image when she was appointed CEO in 2006.
Then interviewer Stephen J. Dubner asked, "I understand that men and women eat chips very differently. Can you tell us the difference?" to which Ms Nooyi replied, "When you eat out of a flex bag - one of our single serve bags - especially as you watch a lot of the young guys eat the chips, they love their Doritos, and they lick their fingers with great glee and when they reach the bottom of the bag they pour the little broken pieces into their mouth, because they don't want to lose that taste of the flavor, and the broken chips in the bottom. Women would love to do the same, but they don't. They don't like to crunch too loudly in public. And they don't lick their fingers generously and they don't like to pour the little broken pieces and the flavor into their mouth."
What she essentially said - men eat chips like nobody's watching, women apparently don't but would like to. And the answer to this could perhaps be chips for ladies.
To Dubner's question: "So is there a male and female version of chips that you're playing with, or no," Ms Nooyi had this to say - "It's not a male and female as much as 'are there snacks for women that can be designed and packaged differently?' And yes, we are looking at it, and we're getting ready to launch a bunch of them soon. For women, low-crunch, the full taste profile, not have so much of the flavor stick on the fingers, and how can you put it in a purse? Because women love to carry a snack in their purse. The whole design capability we built in PepsiCo was to allow design to work with innovation. Not just on packaging colors, but to go through the entire cycle, and say, all the way to the product in the pantry, or how it's being carried around, or how they eat it in the car, or drink it in the car, what should be the design of the product, the package, the experience, so that we can influence the entire chain?"
Hey PepsiCo, while you are at it, why not make the snack in sizes by tote, sling and clutch bags? Since you seem to have figured out what women really want.
Unsurprisingly, Ms Nooyi's remarks were enough to set off a social media chain reaction. In particular, Twitter had a lot to say about this.
Why would Doritos market quiet and less messy chips as "Lady Friendly Doritos" and have a huge PR fiasco instead of just calling them "Discreetos"?
— Nathan Sharp (@NateWantsToBtl) February 6, 2018
i want extra manly doritos chips that sound like kung fu punching concrete blocks in half
— John DeVore (@JohnDeVore) February 5, 2018
New Doritos crunchless chips for women pic.twitter.com/P2ujZr7hXo
— Mujahed Kobbe (@Moj_kobe) February 5, 2018
Or, maybe Doritos should make their chips crunch louder for all the women shattering the glass ceiling, I'm just saying.
— April Fiet (@aprilfiet) February 6, 2018
Which begs the question - ladies, have you ever given a second thought to the way you're eating chips? Have you ever been worried that your loud crunching was disturbing everyone around you or been embarrassed to lick the cheesy goodness from your fingers? In all certainty, the answer is a resounding no. We love everything about our favourite snacks, from the crunch they make to the powdery residue they leave behind on our fingers. They already come in a variety of sizes so carrying them around in our totes and backpacks hasn't proven to be a problem.
In fact, there are ads which sell chocolates and, yes, chips as being so hard to resist that (female) consumers don't care if they end up with said chocolate smeared over their face. Actress Nimrat Kaur was made semi-famous by starring in one of these commercials.
Doritos, which launched last year in India, attempted to clear the air by saying that it was inaccurate, according to NY Times and issuing a tweet.
We already have Doritos for women - they're called Doritos, and they're loved by millions.
— Doritos (@Doritos) February 6, 2018
The backlash received by Doritos follows many unnecessarily gender-specific products like toothpaste and even pens. There are a long list of things that the modern woman wants - equal pay, healthcare reforms and the like. In USA, the pro-life and pro-choice factions are still bitterly opposed. Hollywood is waging a determined war against sexual harassment. Here in India, it would be nice to able to walk down the road wearing what you want whenever you want without several pairs of eyes raking you top to toe or worse. Less crunchy chips are definitely not on the list of the things women really want.
Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world
