PepsiCo Foods Canada is going all-out for the Super Bowl with its first Canadian-made ads to launch new snack brand Havoc and to spread the word that previous LTO flavours for Doritos and Lay’s are now permanent.

While PepsiCo in the U.S. has long been known for its entertaining Super Bowl commercials, U.S. Super Bowl ads are usually limited to American viewers during the live broadcast. Canadians are all too familiar with the ritual of searching for the Super Bowl’s biggest ads online, after they’ve already aired live in the U.S. According to a 2024 survey commissioned by Doritos, nearly eight out of ten Canadian Super Bowl fans believe that watching the U.S. ads makes the game more exciting.

With that in mind, PepsiCo Foods Canada selected three brands to feature in three Super Bowl ads, all airing in Canada during the game, with teasers dropping in the days leading up to the big day.

“The Super Bowl is such a moment for fandom in Canada and it will be even bigger with the Swiftie (Taylor Swift) effect,” Jess Spaulding, CMO for PepsiCo Foods Canada, told strategy in an interview. “Our prediction is that half of the country will tune in. Those households celebrate with our snacks so it’s a perfect occasion for us to show up. It was important to have original made-in-Canada campaigns that really reflected the unique experiences and values of Canadians.”

Spaulding says that while PepsiCo Foods had a slew of brands to choose from to showcase during the game, there were compelling reasons for the ones they selected. Doritos was picked for its 26-year history with the Super Bowl, Lay’s as one of the company’s the biggest and most iconic brands, and Havoc because it’s new. Once the brands were determined, the work began on how to produce culture-driving campaigns.

“They are all very different from each other, but the common element is that they are all unscripted,” Spaulding says. “That’s a new strategy for us and that reflects not using the tried and true creative which the Super Bowl allows you to experiment with.”

Spaulding says the strategy also included experimenting with how to engage consumers across multiple screens, saying they know consumers often look for content beyond the spot in game, while they’re watching.

The new Havoc snack brand features a Fiery Lime rolled tortilla chip, a Bulgogi Blaze kettle chip and a Smoky Nacho corn twist. Spaulding notes that the Super Bowl is a great opportunity to drive awareness of the company’s new brand.

“Havoc is a disruptive new snack brand created with Gen Z consumers in mind, offering a new multi-sensorial experience with a variety of chip forms and flavours, that was really built to mirror the diversity and adventurous nature of the Canadian palette,” says Spaulding.

For Havoc, three 10-second spots will air during the game, teasing the launch of the brand on Feb. 29. The campaign brings creator culture – the brand has partnered with creators David McLeod, Phoebe Kut and Malick Lombion – to the forefront of its efforts and spots will direct viewers to the TikTok channel “Channel Havoc.” After the spots air, the brand will continue to build momentum with mixed media and multi-sensory content experiences until the launch.

Vocabulary developed the Havoc campaign with OMD Canada for media, Edelman Canada for PR, and ShakerMaker and Passionfruit for social media.

The Doritos brand will announce new flavour Sweet & Tangy BBQ, introduced last year as a LTO, with its 30-second “As Seen in Canada” spot. It will feature actor Amrit Kaur (The Sex Lives of College Girls) and comedian Gerry Dee (Family Feud Canada) re-enacting Super Bowl commercials as best they can to give Canadians the full game-day experience.

Goodby Silverstein & Partners developed the Doritos campaign with the support of OMD Canada for media, Edelman Canada for PR, ShakerMaker for talent, and Praxis and Passionfruit for social media.

Lay’s “Betcha Can’t Pick Just One” campaign features “Casting Call,” a 60-second spot, which will launch the Sweet Chili Heat flavour that was initially offered as an LTO, in 2021. The spot resurrects PepsiCo Foods’ partnership with NHL legend Mark Messier for the first time in more than 10 years.

The spot features a fictional audition, where aspiring actors are unknowingly put to the test to prove how difficult it is to pick just one Lay’s flavour. As the actors wait their turn for their names to be called, they start to sample the various flavours of Lays chips sitting in front of them. Those who only picked one flavour had the opportunity to win $1 million, but none picked just one. Each participant who took part in the social experiment receives free Lay’s chips for a year.

Rethink developed the Lay’s campaign with support from OMD Canada for media, Edelman Canada for PR, Genesco Sports Enterprises for athletic talent, and Praxis and Passionfruit for social media.

“The passion behind having Canadian-led work is really important for us,” says Spaulding. “The commonality of having three unscripted ads has its own craziness attached to it but we wanted to leverage the game, which is a very traditional vehicle for advertising, and do it in a way that feels very modern to how our fans consume content, and do it in three different ways that feel authentic to the brands and to the fans of those brands.”

Beyond the Super Bowl, Spaulding says there will be more to the campaigns.

“We have choreography that follows game day, with supplementary content and additional partnerships that will start to roll out and take us into summer,” she says.