For more on this year's Super Bowl ad outlook, check out our latest edition of the "Marketer's Brief" podcast. Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, check us out on Spotify and hear us on Stitcher. This is our RSS feed. Tell a friend!

Pringles' latest Super Bowl spot suggests that flavor stacking—the act of stacking different flavors of Pringles together—is so engaging that people might ignore a lunar pod’s return from space.

In the 30-second spot, “Space Return,” the people doing the stacking are in a NASA-like mission control room and on a fishing ship.

Meanwhile, two astronauts stranded at sea have no Pringles, nor any luck in getting anyone’s attention. First, the astronauts are ignored by the mission control group enthralled by a man’s combination of original, barbecue and pizza crisps, creating a barbecue pizza stack. Then, presumably, after much time has passed, the astronauts are excited to see the boat nearby. But a fisherman’s spicy cheese stack of jalapeno, cheddar cheese and ranch crisps leads to merriment and, once again, no one sees the astronauts.

“The brief centered around how Pringles can inject unnecessary genius into the everyday. So, you don’t just snack, you Pringle. And in this case, you Flavor Stack,” Gareth Maguire, senior director of marketing for Pringles, said in a statement. “This brought the brand to the idea that there are so many delicious Pringles flavor stacks to create and try, you could easily get distracted from your other responsibilities, often with hilarious consequences.”

Stacking different flavors of Pringles together to come up with new combinations is a premise that has played out in each of the Kellogg Co. brand’s Super Bowl ads, all from Grey Group. When Pringles announced its return in December, it shared that “Pringles looks to build on previous years with a spot that features the hilarious consequences that occur when people get engrossed in Pringles Flavor Stacking combinations.”

A 6-second teaser released earlier this week showed the lunar pod with the words “our heroes return” and the date of the game (Feb. 7, 2021, in case you’ve forgotten). 

Pringles' first Super Bowl ad, in 2018, "Wow," featured Bill Hader and pals stacking various flavors, an idea the brand said came together after staffers at Grey New York were munching on the potato crisps. In 2019, a sad smart speaker helped explain flavor stacking combinations. And in 2020, characters from “Rick and Morty” were the stars, and the spot looked more like an episode of the show than a typical snack commercial. Adult Swim worked on that spot in partnership with Grey.

The Pringles spot is being released more that a week before the Super Bowl, which may help remind people to buy the crisps as snacks to have while watching the game at home. Pringles is not the only salty snack advertiser in this year's game. PepsiCo's Frito-Lay plans to air spots for Cheetos and Doritos during the game, plus a broader portfolio spot that will air before the coin toss. 

To keep track of all the advertisers running national spots in the game, bookmark Ad Age’s regularly updated Super Bowl ad chart.

Join Ad Age on Feb. 2 for a look at how brands are navigating the pandemic and addressing diversity in their ads for the 2021 game.