The new version of the crisps, being labelled as "lady friendly", will be small enough to fit into a handbag and make less of a loud crunch when being eaten. Hat's off to the guys at Doritos, for really solving a huge problem, constantly tripping us up every day... PepsiCo, who own the brand, have revealed that women don't like crunching loudly in public and also hate licking their fingers in the same way that men do.
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In an interview with Freakonomics radio, Global CEO of PepsiCo, Indra Nooyi, explained that 'when you eat out of a flex bag, one of our single serve bags, especially as you watch a lot of 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 flavour and the broken chips in the bottom'. She went on to say '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 into their mouth'.
An outrage among gender equality groups
The news has not sat well with many women across the world, with some claiming that the company is 'perpetuating tired gender stereotypes'. A statement from the Women's Equality Party stated that 'some male consumers will welcome the chance to have a bigger package. But the idea of shrinking products for women, no doubt for the same price, is as old as the Ad Men making these decisions'.
Whether PepsiCo do indeed go ahead with their plans or not, will have no impact on the product in the UK. New laws that will be passed later this year will not allow the crisps to be marketed as a "lady friendly" product. The laws being proposed by the Advertising Standards Authority will forbid any gender stereotyping in advertising.
