Doritos recently told consumers that they plan on releasing a new version of their chips that were targeted towards the ladies. The new version of the chips won't crunch so loudly, will be less messy, and come in a size easy to pop into handbags.
But who really asked for them to make this new version of chips? Certainly not actual women.
In an article on the New York Post, the CEO of Pepsi-Co (who own Doritos) Indra Nooyi got the idea from a study that found women don't like to eat crunchy food or lick their fingers in public.
Apparently, women don't like noisy doritos
On the podcast, "Freakonomics Radio" Nooyi said guys love the sensation of licking their fingers and eating the broken chips at the bottom of the bad but that women don't like crunching too loud in public or lick their fingers. Nooyi should probably give more evidence to prove her Dorito consumption theories.
Another important aspect to the controversy, Nooyi herself is a women. This brings up the question of how can a female try to justify such sexist marketing?
The Lady Doritos reminds consumers of the controversial "Pink Tax," which is basically the idea to paint something pink to target it towards women and then hike the price up for making it exclusive to females.
What the PepsiCo CEO fails to realize is that most people who eat Doritos, or any chip for that matter, eat them in the same way Nooyi described how men eat them. There is really no difference how women and men eat chips. In reality, do men really enjoy licking the chip dust off their fingers like she's portraying? It can be argued that both genders don't like getting their fingertips dirty.
It didn't take long for people to start commenting on the idea. Not only was PespsiCo facing angry feedback but some was also humorous.
Here's what social media had to say about the new idea
I saw Lady Doritos trending and thought “Ah, so Kylie named her baby.”
— Laraine Pennington (@LaraineBaker) February 5, 2018
Has anyone at Doritos ever met a lady
— Danielle Sepulveres (@ellesep) February 5, 2018
Women would rather have affordable feminine hygiene products and contraception but instead we get Lady Doritos.
— Shea (@iamsheajenkins) February 5, 2018
Women: We want equal pay for equal work and an end to sex discrimination in the workplace.
— Marie Connor (@thistallawkgirl) February 5, 2018
Society: Here’s a bag of Lady Doritos so you won’t have to crunch too loudly in front of your male colleagues.
There are plenty of things women have been asking for but Lady Doritos was not one of them.
In fact, the idea is more negative than positive. The idea focuses more on how women look in public while eating the chips rather than their actual enjoyment of Doritos.
According to the Washington Post, "PepsiCo isn't developing a product based only on sexism. PepsiCo is developing a product based on real-life behaviors that are themselves based on sexism."
The concept goes into a deeper issue than the surface level issue of sexism.
PepsiCo probably meant nothing by the idea except that it was supposed to be a relief from what women might not like about their chips, they just didn't market it effectively.
