Over the past few days “Lady Doritos” has been trending on many social pages. At first I thought it was a funny Super Bowl commercial, maybe a SNL skit from over the weekend. To my total surprise, it’s an actual thing.

On Monday, it was reported Doritos would be making “lady-friendly chips” that had the same taste and flavor but had cuter packaging and “don’t crunch as loud.” The speculation came from none other than PepsiCo’s CEO, Indra Nooyi, in a podcast episode with Freakonomics, saying “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 …” It’s surprising, especially since Nooyi has been thoughtful on matters of employee treatment and advancement of women in the workplace.

Since Nooyi’s podcast episode with Freakonomics, Doritos has reversed course and denied specifically creating “lady chips.” In addition, Doritos replaced the statement below, but only after its social media pages were taken over by many Dorito-loving ladies who hated the idea.

“The reporting on a specific Doritos product for female consumers is inaccurate,” a company spokeswoman said Tuesday. “We already have Doritos for women — they’re called Doritos, and they’re enjoyed by millions of people every day.”

So … what happened here? Was it a case of soundbite-itis? Just poor marketing on PepsiCo’s part? Or is there no such thing as bad publicity in a world where social media controls the conversation? I think the lesson to be learned here is that not only do you have to remain authentic to your brand, you have to listen to your community as well.

That’s the exact advice Tina Sharkey, co-founder and CEO of Brandless, gives in our most recent episode of Women in Retail Talks. Sharkey discusses how she helped create Brandless, a community-driven lifestyle e-tailer with all of its products priced for $3 or less. Did I also mention that Sharkey is also one of our 2018 Top Women in Retail? 🙂

Check out the rest of today’s Inner Circle issue for more on leadership and branding. Also, we want to get your thoughts on the Doritos debacle? Let us know and we’ll feature you on our social pages.

I’ll be over here with a bag of Cool Ranch crunching away 🙂

Caitlin Sullivan
Senior Editor
Women in Retail Leadership Circle