Matt Schaffer is the creative director for Frito-Lay North America.
Matt Schaffer and his team were the brains behind PopCorners’ first-ever Super Bowl ad, the "Breaking Bad"-inspired “Breaking Good," which ran earlier this year. It was also the first Big Game ad created by the in-house agency.
The original idea and script for the spot seemed like a long shot, according to Schaffer, but ended up testing well and was green-lit. One challenge was staying true to the popular show without moving into parody territory.
“We used the actual RV from the show,” said Schaffer, 39. “And we pulled up real frames from the pilot to recreate them.”
Schaffer’s six-person team, which oversees Lay’s, PopCorners and Ruffles, is also the agency’s only fully remote team.
“I don’t think there have been any hitches,” he said. “We overcommunicate and try to be intentional about making sure our relationships with the brand folks in Plano [Texas] are the same as if we were in the office.”
Schaffer was also behind the “Road to Super Bowl” ads featuring Eli and Peyton Manning—the first major campaign for which Frito-Lay and Pepsi collaborated on one combined broadcast effort. Schaffer also created Super Bowl TikTok activations for Cheetos and Doritos, helped spearhead the creation of the Green Bay Packers’ unofficial mascot QuesoHead and worked with NBA player Jayson Tatum and lo-fi paint illustrator NBA Paint to create a Jayson Potatum doodle for Ruffles.
Jon Stewart. I love comedy and grew up watching “The Daily Show” every night. His influence on me and my sensibilities has been huge. And I know that he’s been on the absolute edge of his seat waiting for this list to come out—so I know he’ll see this. He’s a guy who loves knowing who’s 40, and who’s not quite 40.
YouTube and TikTok.
I listen to podcasts before bed. Recently, Neal Brennan’s “Blocks,” “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend” and Rick Rubin’s “Tetragrammaton.”
“Black Mirror.”
I’m not very good at sitting still. As long as I’m still having fun, I’ll be here. Right now, I’m just focused on doing cool things with nice people.
