Promoting a Potato Chip Using Many Farmers, and Less Salt

In a campaign for Lay’s that features actual farmers who grow potatoes used to make the chips, the farmers are meant to appear just as they do in life: genuine, simple, plain-spoken, salt of the earth.

Oops. Strike that, given the concern among food activists over the amount of sodium in snacks like potato chips. Rather, let it be said that the campaign, now under way, is intended to help consumers think of Lay’s as a food rather than a snack.

The campaign, by an agency in Toronto named Juniper Park, expands on an effort the agency introduced last year that was centered on farmers who grow potatoes for the maker of Lay’s, the Frito-Lay unit of Pepsico

The new elements for 2010 include significantly more ads for local markets, with regional farmers as the stars;an online “Happiness Exhibit” photo gallery at the brand’s Web site, lays.com, which reinforces the theme of the campaign, “Happiness is simple”;five new regional flavors like Tangy Carolina BBQ and Southwest Cheese and Chiles;and reformulated versions of the Kettle Cooked varieties of Lay’s.