Maybe You Should Leave Frito-Lay's Chips for Santa This Year

Saint Nick’s soured on sweet. Best try salty!

Rethink’s first work for Frito-Lay Canada suggests scrapping Christmas Eve cookies-and-milk in favor of Lay’s chips as a snack for Santa.

“This campaign started with one simple idea: What if Santa wanted an alternative to cookies?” says Jess Spaulding, CMO at Frito-Lay parent PepsiCo Foods Canada. “That inspired us to think creatively about how Santa could speak for every Canadian who finds themselves wishing for a bowl of chips over the traditionally sweet holiday season.”

Agency CCO Mike Dubrick says the work positions the brand as “challenging convention.” Take that, toll house fans!

The push kicked off with cheeky letters in The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, Vancouver Sun and Montreal Gazette last week. The :60 drops shortly thereafter.

Lay’s work around the world has been especially crisp of late, notably soccer-themed ads starring Lionel Messi and Thierry Henry.

For this yuletide change of pace, Mark Zibert directed through Scouts Honor. Online studio Tantrum crafted the cookie-explosion dream sequence.