Gen Z likes their content the same way they like their snacks: only slightly spicy. Doritos needed to prove that its new flavor, Golden Sriracha, wasn’t nearly as spicy as it sounded to drive interest in the surprisingly-mild chip.
To launch the new flavor, Doritos Golden Sriracha was presented as ‘Spicy… But Not Too Spicy,’ and brought that idea to life by releasing the world’s first adult film with absolutely no adult content. To support the film, Doritos went to a notoriously spicy social platform, Reddit, to amplify the campaign in a way that would cause the audience to do a double take.
Reddit is a platform infamous for its share of NSFW culture and unfiltered humor, so we designed a campaign launch that felt native, risky and self-aware. We set out to spark curiosity through native, platform references, and invited Reddit users to engage and become part of the punchline.
Instead of avoiding Reddit’s “spicy” reputation, Doritos Golden Sriracha leaned into it and knew just how far to take it.
We knew a risque campaign full of innuendos and adult film references would naturally resonate on Reddit. The creative was bold and we had an opportunity for the actual idea to behave just like Reddit.
So we designed a campaign to mimic native platform cues as we walked right up to the line of what felt NSFW, without ever crossing it. We centered our campaign around the long-form “adult film.” As the campaign continued, we launched a series of ‘Spicy… But Not Too Spicy’ activations that mimicked native Reddit NSFW content and pushed the boundaries just enough for the Reddit ads policy team to flag our own ads for review.
By embedding the creative concept with native platform signals, we were able to capture Reddit’s attention to engage, as they realized it was all part of a ruse. These clever experiences solidified the campaign message with Reddit users in a way that was memorable and endemic to the platform. Generating 189 million impressions, over half a million clicks and a click-through rate of +870% over campaign benchmark, this campaign set an industry record at Reddit. This turned a Doritos flavor launch into a highly-engaging, cultural moment that sparked interaction and buzz around Golden Sriracha.
