PepsiCo-owned Frito-Lay has kicked off the biggest campaign in the brand’s history by introducing Flavor Kitchen in the very heart of the Big Apple—on Time Square. In course of this week-long event that is slated to last from April 11 until April 15, Frito-Lay will let consumers see what’s cooking in its Flavor Kitchen located in the headquarters in Plano, Texas. Padma Lakshmi, an award-winning TV host, cookbook author and just a terrific cook, will join Frito-Lay executive chef Stephen Kalil and Laura Macintosh, host of the brand’s own “Flavor Kitchen” web series to let the consumers in behind-the-scenes area of snack manufacturing and guide them «from seed to shelf».

Following a review of more than 5,600 creative submissions Doritos and Pepsi MAX revealed the names of the 10 finalists in the Crash the Super Bowl challenge. These 10 finalists will go on to compete to be one of six consumer-created ads—three for Doritos and three for Pepsi MAX—airing during the Super Bowl XLV broadcast, February 6, on FOX.

Frito-Lay, a world-renowned producer known for its commitment to offering natural and healthy products on the snacks and chips market, announced that in the coming 2011, it would produce 50% of its products using all-natural ingredients. The brand confirmed that it would exclude any artificial additives, flavours, ingredients, preservatives, and MSG from the recipes of such products as Lay’s, Tostitos, and SunChips.

The Doritos brand and Microsoft today unveiled the much-anticipated, fully playable Xbox LIVE® Arcade game versions for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft of ‘Avatar Crash Course’ created by Jill Robertson of Raleigh, N.C., and ‘Harm’s Way’ created by Justin Carpenter of Ogden, Utah—the two finalists in the Doritos ‘Unlock Xbox’ challenge.

Frito-Lay Canada is now selling its SunChips in a 100% compostable packaging, which is obviously good news. The bad news about it is that the packs are very noisy. The fans of the product have even registered a group on Facebook, entitled “Sorry but I can’t hear you over this SunChips bag” with over 52 thousand fans to date, and the brand is doing everything possible to convince the public that loud and green should win over quiet and harmful. If consumers want to eat these chips, but hate the sound the packaging makes, the brand offers them a pair of earplugs. 

Frito-Lay is continuing its global campaign focused on promoting the fact of its Lay’s chips’ naturalness. This summer, residents of San Francisco could see a first-of-its-kind handcrafted billboard, which had been carved for 10 days in the open air on one of the city’s streets. Now, the Canadian division of the company has launched a print & TV campaign on the same theme to introduce consumers to real farmers, who supply potatoes for the brand.

Doritos Australia has eventually named the winner of its “Doritos Make an Ad, Make a Fortune” national contest, which started in May. For the second consecutive year, the brand in cooperation with the Sydney-based Clemenger BBDO agency was encouraging creative minds from all across the country to enter the competition and become rich by creating a funny 29-second ad about Doritos. This year’s winner, 21-year old Alex George, managed to win the heart of the judges and voters with his ‘Tasmanian’ commercial and received $30 as the prize for sharing a piece of his creativity with Australia.