Doritos: Lady-friendly Chips Receive Flak from the Ladies

PepsiCo has announced plans to launch 'Lady-Friendly’ Doritos. Making special chips for women who are embarrassed to munch down on noisy chips in public. PepsiCo’s Indra Nooyi announced the same in an interview with Freakonomics Radio. Nooyi revealed that the company would be launching lady snacks, finally allowing women everywhere to eat between meals just as men have done for centuries.

When the host asked Ms Nooyi about the difference between how men and women eat chips, this is what she had to offer.

Nooyi said, “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 flavour, 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 flavour into their mouth.”

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 flavour into their mouth.

As a solution to this problem, she also mentioned that they are getting ready to launch a bunch of such products soon.

She further explains that for women, low-crunch and the full taste profile is essential. At the same time most importantly it should fit in their bags. She says, “Women love to carry a snack in their purse. The whole design capability we build in PepsiCo was to allow a design to work with innovation. Not just on packaging colours, but to go through the entire cycle.”

While this move was supposed to gauge the female audience and it, unfortunately, backfired. A lot of women vented their anger on social media and even celebrities mocked the move of the company. Most of the women ridiculed this move as a misinterpretation of the common statement ‘We need equality and equal pay.’

The very generalization of women not being comfortable to eat loudly and wanting to be nonchalant at workspace received a royal backlash.

Simran Khosla, a sophomore from Delhi University mentioned that such statements from such powerful personalities still sadly reflect the way society thinks.

She says, “It is a general perception that women don’t want to do this and do that is haunting. Gendering products like these are next level and out of at least my understanding. Whether a woman likes to eat loudly or lick her fingers is her own choice. Such generalizations not only affect women but rather compels and restricts men as well. It’s amazing to see women going against such silly moves by giant companies like PepsiCo. It’s time to remove all the façade of gender equality and bring in real equality that women deserve.”

Though the lady-friendly chips are enticing to hear, it surely did not give the company the response they expected. It’s absolutely perfect if ladies wish to lick the flavours sticking to their fingers or hog the little pieces in the end. Instead of masquerading efforts towards gender equality, companies should understand the need of the consumers and deliver it. Though the prototype and details of the product are yet to be revealed, let us know your thoughts on the not-so-loud, lady-friendly chips!

Also Read:  Indra Nooyi, Chanda Kochhar, Priyanka Chopra on Forbes 100 Powerful Women

Reshma Ganeshbabu is an intern with SheThePeople.TV