‘Lady Doritos’: Brand to launch ‘low crunch’ purse-sized version marketed towards women
NEW YORK, NY – NOVEMBER 08: Joel McHale hosts Mtn Dew, Doritos and Xbox Drop Zone, the first of this weekend’s nationwide, augmented reality capture-the-flag contests, awarding hundreds of winners the new Xbox One X on November 8, 2017 in New York City. (Photo by Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images for Doritos)
Doritos this week – in a really, actually not satire moment – this week announced that they are launching a new version of the product aimed at women who like to put snacks in their purses.
Indra Nooyi, the CEO of PepsiCo, which manufactures Doritos, this week said her company was planning to launch the product.
She said that they were trying to solve women’s “least favourite things” about Doritos, and had studied how men and women consume the product differently.
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Amongst men studied, Nooyi told WNYC’s Frekanomics podcast that men lick their fingers, crunch their chips and pour the broken pieces into their mouths because they don’t want to miss out on the flavour.
But, according to Nooyi, women don’t like to “crunch too loudly”, and they like snacks that will fit in their purses.
“Women would love to do the same, but they don’t,” she adds.
“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.”
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When asked by the podcast’s host, Stephen Dubner, Nooyi said the company is not launching specifically a “male and female” version of Doritos.
She says: “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.”
Nooyi, one of only 27 women heading up Fortune 500 companies, has been praised for hiring a record number of women and people of colour, and has often spoken about women’s leadership in business.
But she wasn’t praised for this latest idea, with the internet tearing apart the concept of women’s Doritos.
Good Morning Britain host Piers Morgan, complained about the idea on this morning’s show, and smashed up a packet of the crisps live on TV.
“This is what we do to Doritos,” he said as he bashed the packet with a microphone.
One Twitter user commented on the lady Doritos idea to say: “instead of crunching noise the new Lady Doritos just say “sorry” quietly every time you bite down.”
Another said: “women: give us equal pay, stop harassing us, stop literally threatening our lives
brands: how about quiet doritos for women?
women: no, that’s–
brands: snacks you can fit into your purse!
women: what? no–
brands: a pen that’s comfy for your lady hands!”
And a third added: “My generation marched so future generations of women could enjoy Lady Doritos.”
Doritos, meanwhile, tweeted from its official account to say: “We already have Doritos for women — they’re called Doritos, and they’re loved by millions.”
If that isn’t enough unnecessary gendering for one day, check out these 15 ridiculous unnecessarily gendered products.
Last year, a BBC experiment highlighted how gender stereotypes affect how we play with children, even if we don’t know their gender.
And another investigation into gendered products such as razors, biro pens and yoghurts, found that women were often charged up to twice as much as men for their version of the same product.
