Doritos is returning to the Super Bowl with its “Crash the Super Bowl” challenge, the revolutionary campaign that crowdsourced Big Game ads from 2006 to 2016.
The original campaign led to ads including “Goat 4 sale” and “House Rules.” Of the 21 Crash ads that aired, the winning spots earned top-five rankings on the USA Today Ad Meter every year in which they aired, including four No. 1 rankings. The campaign was widely seen as groundbreaking in the ad world, putting user-generated ads on the map and boosting Doritos sales.
Goodby Silverstein & Partners, which worked on the original campaign and past Doritos’ Super Bowl efforts, will handle the contest this year.
The campaign kicks off today, accepting admissions through Nov. 11. The winner will receive $1 million and an all-expenses paid trip to Super Bowl 2025 in New Orleans. Contestants can visit DoritosCrash.com for official rules and submission instructions, as well as a toolkit of music, logos and other brand assets. Ads must be 30 seconds and one contestant can submit up to 10 video entries, according to the brief. It also says that Doritos “prefers” that ad makers feature the Nacho Cheese and Cool Ranch flavors, though does not explicitly say they must be in the ad.
“When Doritos originally launched this campaign nearly 20 years ago, it was the first of its kind, giving fans previously unheard-of creative control and ownership of our brand—and on the biggest advertising stage of the year,” Tina Mahal, senior VP of marketing at PepsiCo Foods North America, said in a statement. “We still firmly believe that the best ideas often come from the most unexpected places. Now that our fans have more access than ever to creative and ad-making tools, we can’t wait to see what they have up their sleeves.”
Creating the winning spot was life-changing for some, including director Ben Callner, the creator of “Goat 4 Sale.” Callner was 28 and living in the basement of his girlfriend’s parents’ house when he won the contest in 2013. He now directs for Hungry Man.
Doritos’ 2024 Super Bowl spot from Goodby Silverstein & Partners highlighted the brand’s Dinamita chips with Jenna Ortega, Danny Ramirez and two determined abuelas—Dina and Mita. Doritos’ 2023 Big Game spot, also from Goodby Silverstein & Partners, featured Jack Harlow, Missy Elliott, and Elton John. Doritos has aired Super Bowl ads the last seven years.
Sketchers was the first brand to publicly confirm a 2025 Big Game spot.
