‘Lady Doritos’ are not a real thing, says PepsiCo

Social media had a field day on Monday eating up the “news” that the folks at Doritos planned to introduce a low-crunch, purse-friendly version of the snacks for women.

People scornfully nicknamed them “lady Doritos.”

Welp, it’s not happening.

“The reporting on a specific Doritos product for female consumers is inaccurate,” a company spokeswoman said in a statement to Ad Age on Monday night.

“We already have Doritos for women - they're called Doritos, and they're enjoyed by millions of people every day. At the same time, we know needs and preferences continue to evolve and we're always looking for new ways to engage and delight our consumers.”

The crunchy kerfuffle began with a recent interview in which Indra Nooyi, CEO of Frito-Lay’s parent company, PepsiCo, told WNYC’s Freakonomics Radio that women “don’t like to pour the little broken pieces and the flavor into their mouth.”

The Freakononmics interviewer brought up the subject, according to a transcript of the interview. It went like this.

Stephen Dubner: “I understand that men and women eat chips very differently. Can you tell us the differences?”

Nooyi: “When you eat out of a flex bag — one of our single-serve bags — especially as you watch a lot of the young guys eat the chips, they love their Doritos, and they lick their fingers with great glee, and when they reach the bottom of the bag they pour the little broken pieces into their mouth, because they don’t want to lose that taste of the flavor, and the broken chips in the bottom.

“Women would love to do the same, but they don’t. 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 flavor into their mouth.”

Dubner: “So is there a male and female version of chips that you’re playing with, or no?”

Nooyi: “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, an Indian immigrant and one of only 27 female CEOs currently leading Fortune 500 companies, is on Forbes’ most powerful women in the world list and frequently speaks on women’s leadership issues, according to NPR.

Social media users nearly lost their lunch at the thought of Doritos for girls.

“May I request they be salted with the tears of our enemies?” tweeted one of many women, and men for that matter, who sounded off and turned “Lady Doritos” into a trending topic nationwide on Monday.

But maybe lady-chips were just an Amy Schumer joke after all?

This story was originally published February 5, 2018 at 3:53 PM with the headline "‘Lady Doritos’ are not a real thing, says PepsiCo."