The Drum Awards for Marketing - Extended Deadline

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By Webb Wright, NY Reporter

February 6, 2023 | 3 min read

Breaking Bad fans rejoice, bitch.

Frito-Lay-owned brand PopCorners is bringing an alternative (and much more wholesome) Breaking Bad storyline to life in its Super Bowl LVII ad.

The ad, released today and titled ‘Breaking Good,’ features three characters from the iconic TV show: Walter White, Jesse Pinkman and Tuco Salamanca – played by Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul and Raymond Cruz, respectively. It opens inside the familiar RV. The neo-Pinkman takes a bite of a PopCorners chip and shouts exuberantly about the quality of the product, just as his Breaking Bad counterpart might’ve shouted with glee at the sight of a perfect batch of Blue Sky. White, sitting menacingly in the corner, admonishes his lovably excitable sidekick not to eat their own supply – another familiar refrain from the TV show.

In the next scene, we see White and Pinkman standing outside the RV, in the desert, handing over a bag of PopCorners to Salamanca. He’s every bit as tense and aggressive as he was when he first appeared on the show in 2008.

“PopCorners’ desire to create a genuine extension of the franchise and a campaign that would really excite Breaking Bad fans is what brought us back for this Super Bowl commercial,” Cranston said in a statement. “Walt would’ve been immediately drawn to the basic ingredients in PopCorners, so ‘Breaking Good’ made perfect sense as an alternate storyline that would’ve been much better for him and Jesse.”

Breaking Bad is often described as the most critically acclaimed show of all time. The series finale aired in September 2013.

It isn’t just the characters and their wardrobes that are familiar in the new PopCorners ad; it’s also the cinematography. That’s because the brand recruited none other than Vince Gilligan – creator, head writer, executive producer and director of Breaking Bad – to direct the new commercial.

The ad closes with the tagline: “Break into something good,” complete with Breaking Bad’s iconography, borrowed from the periodic table of the elements.

Doritos, another Frito-Lay-owned brand, has dropped three different teasers for a Big Game commercial starring Jack Harlow and Missy Elliot.

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