Pringles creates 8-bit potato chip to celebrate retro gaming
The Drum’s Ad of the Day highlights work that stands head and shoulders above the rest. Today’s winner is ‘Stay In The Game’ by Grey London for Pringles.
Pringles campaign by Grey London / Grey London
Before the metaverse, the cloud or the internet, people shared computer games using the sound of binary code loaded on to a system called the ZX Spectrum (AKA the Speccy). In celebration of its 40th anniversary, Pringles and agency partner Grey London have launched a new campaign titled ‘Stay In The Game.’
It’s a tribute to those who have consistently played video games all these years, and harks back to the early 80s and the 8-bit home computing revolution. At its heart is a Pringlesonic Chip – an 8-bit depiction of a potato chip created in binary code sound.
“Pringles continues to be the go-to snack for gamers, and we’re really excited to take that to the next level,” said Aisling O’Hara, European marketing manager at Pringles.
“When talking to consumers during campaign development, they told us how the Pringles chip is like no other [and] how the ‘less mess snack’ helps them stay in the game, which formed the basis of our ‘Stay in the Game’ creative idea. We’re looking forward to having a lot of fun with this campaign under our new brand platform Mind Popping.”
It might be cryptic communication for some people, but others have instantly recognized it and downloaded the sound to play to their ZX Spectrum – which also showed details of a competition to win a one-off 8-bit can of Pringlesonic Original Computer Chips.
“It’s been said that without the ZX Spectrum, computer gaming would never have taken off in the way it has,” added Laura Jordan Bambach, president and chief creative officer at Grey London.
“So it makes sense for the go-to gaming snack Pringles to pay tribute to its ability to stay in the game, even as it turns 40, with this ingenuity of Pringles’ mind-popping 8-bit of genius.”
To coincide with the launch, Pringles has also created additional social content featuring footage of the supercomputer creating the 8-bit Pringlesonic Chip so that newer generations of gamers can see what the fuss is about.
