Was just catching up on The Office via DVR and this gem came on. I found it very unexpected for Lay's, and I think that's a good bit of what makes it work. It also helps that in a world filled with depressing headlines, this delivers a moment of reprieve and makes you smile.
The reason this all works in my opinion, is because they found an interesting way to tell us that Lay's are made of only three simple ingredients by first reminding us that potato chips are fun to eat and that they can often be found on tables and plates with other foods that make us happy at social gatherings of family and friends.
It's not hard to imagine the brief having something about playing off the tension around potato chips - that potato chips have become infamous for their role in the growing obesity problems in the States and are often associated with people who are "couch potatoes," when in truth, Lay's potato chips are fun to eat (especially for kids), and are made with only three simple ingredients, making them better for you than other brands of potato chips.
Of course it doesn't hurt that they have borrowed a piece of what made Sony Balls great - putting a simple song behind it that helps draw you in.
The only thing I think they missed was to provide easy social media sharing and embedding functionality on their site alongside the commercial. If you're going to go to all that effort and cost to produce such a well done spot, why not make sure you enable it to spread beyond where you place it in case people want to talk about it?
Anyway, overall a very nicely done piece of advertising for a product I haven't thought about in a long time and can't recall any specific advertising they've ever made under previous tag lines around not being able to eat just one.
Update (02.15.09):
Charles has a nice write-up pointing out the same work, including the below spot, and links to a couple more posts on the ads. Glad I discovered them the way I did. Finding out Jason and Juniper Park are behind them makes me smile even more. Love to see great work coming from even greater people. Nice job, Jason and team.
