Doritos Turned Crunch Into Formula 1.
THE POSITION
The product became the experience.
Formula 1 gives Doritos access to speed, spectacle and global fandom. But sponsorship alone doesn't make those qualities belong to the brand. Taste the Thrill finds the bridge inside the product itself. The crunch becomes the trigger that turns an ordinary snack into a sensation of speed. Doritos isn't simply borrowing excitement from Formula 1. It's giving its most recognizable product attribute a new emotional meaning.
01 — THE MOVE
Turn a product attribute into an emotional trigger.
Doritos could have treated Formula 1 like conventional sponsorship: drivers, cars, logos and branded race-day content. Instead, it chose something the sport and product could plausibly share: intensity.
The campaign exaggerates what happens after a bite. Office workers appear hit by G-force. People watching from their couches suddenly behave like drivers fighting for position. The familiar crunch becomes the starting signal.
That choice matters because the product doesn't disappear behind the sponsorship. The chip is the mechanism connecting the two worlds.
Formula 1 supplies the thrill. Doritos gives that thrill a physical trigger.
02 — THE THINKING
Most fans watch the speed from somewhere still.
The strategic tension is distance. Formula 1 may be defined by visceral sensations—engine noise, acceleration, physical speed—but most of its audience experiences those things through a screen. Doritos identified that gap explicitly: most fans will never experience a race in person.
That gives the product a job sponsorship signage cannot perform.
Doritos already has a sensory asset: its crunch. The campaign exaggerates that physical sensation until it stands in for the force and intensity of racing. Eating becomes the point where spectatorship turns into imagined participation.
Emotionally, the territory is thrill. Strategically, the mechanism is proximity.
Doritos cannot put every fan in an F1 car. It can make the ritual they already have—watching the race with a bag of chips—feel closer to one. That's why the product belongs in the idea instead of merely beside it.
03 — THE IMPACT
The sponsorship becomes a platform the product can own.
The strategic advantage is repeatability. Taste the Thrill doesn't depend on one driver, race or commercial. Doritos can express the same idea through film, social content, packaging, prizes, physical experiences and Doritos Loaded food activations at more than 15 races.
That gives the F1 partnership a product logic rather than simply a media logic.
At the circuit, Doritos builds Thrill Zones and serves Doritos Loaded. At home, the bag becomes part of the viewing ritual. In advertising, crunch becomes speed.
The sponsorship therefore creates something potentially more durable than borrowed visibility: a world in which Doritos' existing sensory equity and Formula 1's emotional equity reinforce each other.
The race gives Doritos adrenaline. The product gives the adrenaline something to taste.
Partnered Agency
Sources
PepsiCo — “Doritos debuts ‘Taste the Thrill’ to bring Formula 1 fans closer to the action”
Primary campaign source establishing the global platform, consumer insight, campaign films, markets, fan experiences and Doritos Loaded activation across 15+ races.
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PepsiCo — “Full speed ahead: Inside PepsiCo's Formula 1 partnership”
Establishes Doritos' role as Official Savory Snack Partner and the larger strategy connecting the brand's crunch and flavor with F1's sensory intensity.
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Ads of the World — “Taste the Thrill”
Documents PS21 and Goodby Silverstein & Partners' campaign development, film/OOH/digital executions and production credits.
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Little Black Book — “Doritos Turns Sofa Snacking Into Formula 1 Spectacle in The Crunch Prix”
Documents the July hero execution, Goodby Silverstein & Partners, Antoine Bardou-Jacquet, Untold Studios and the creative translation of home viewing into racing.
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PepsiCo — Doritos Loaded / Gordon Ramsay + George Russell
Documents the expansion from packaged snacks into Doritos Loaded, eight Ramsay recipes, F1 fan-zone food trucks and broader race-season activations.
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PepsiCo / Doritos VP Kyle Gore — The Crunch Prix
Confirms The Crunch Prix as the latest chapter of Taste the Thrill, created by GS&P and built around fans watching F1 from home with Doritos.
Written by
Ray Joseph
Founder, JOSEPH
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