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Doritos Dumps Their Logo and Brand Name to Appeal to Gen Z

by Rudy Sanchez on 09/09/2019 | 2 Minute Read

Most brands go through logo changes and refreshes from time-to-time, but Doritos is evolving into a new form, unloading helpful things like brand and product names, logos, and other essential but corporate-y things because The Kids(TM) don’t like traditional advertising. 

Is Doritos on to something and giving us a glimpse into the future of non-branding-branding, or is it just a move out of the old stunt-promotion playbook?

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The new approach still holds onto key visual brand identifiers, most notably, the familiar triangle shape and different colors and images for their flavor range (one blue bag, one red bag).

 Of course, there is a hashtag, which, while a relatively new thing, it’s not an edgy, anti-advertising, we’re-too-true-to-ourselves-to-advertise, thing. The new site is just as sparse, but makes use of their familiar triangle icon, replacing Doritos with “Logo Goes Here” (they’ve even changed their twitter handle to @logo_goes_here).

"There’s a desire to almost reject traditional advertising,” Rachel Ferdinando, senior vice president of marketing at Frito-Lay, told the Wall Street Journal. And while to some extent that might be true, traditional ads are still doled out in a world of ad-free Netflix and Spotify streaming (well, Spotify IF you pay for it).

Editorial photograph

There are also newer strategies used to advertise to consumers accustomed to splashy TV spots and catchy jingles. Advertisers are turning to social media influencers to talk up and recommend their products to legions of fans, a throwback to what The Olds(TM) call a “celebrity endorsement.”

Of course, no one really knows if no-branding will resonate with young, Generation Z consumers that are entering the start of their prime, influential purchasing years. The ultra-slickness of the (non) ad has perhaps one flaw, it’s trying too hard to seem anti-corporate-cool, and that insincerity might be a bigger turn-off than traditional branding to the woke generation.

Good thing these darn kids who won't get off my lawn buy everything on the Amazon because how the hell are you supposed to find a bag Cool Ranch if there’s no name on the damn bag?