A plan to make lady-friendly Doritos that don’t crunch as loudly and are less messy is facing backlash from the women it's aiming to please.
CEO of PepsiCo Indra Nooyi cited research in an interview with Freakonomics Radio that said women don’t like to crunch too loudly in public or lick their fingers when there are crumbs. That research led the company, which owns Frito-Lay, to develop new chips especially for women that don’t crunch or crumble as much as the original version.
The reaction to Frito-Lay’s plan has been negative and filled with sarcasm about special chips for women. Marketing strategist for Future Made Tracey Follows said the plan is an example of “almost presenting women as the problem, [to which] their product has found the solution,” The Guardian reported. “If they were going to do this new version, why not market it as a variant that is open to all? I don’t understand why it has to be targeted at women.”
Comedy Central released a spoof video on its Twitter page showing women blissfully eating silent chips in a bathroom stall and behind the casket at a funeral “because you’re humiliated by basic human desires.”
Others on Twitter thought the comments must be a joke and attacked Nooyi and PepsiCo for the plans, saying they would crunch away proudly.
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