Judging by some of the latest designs from smaller companies, it appears that Lay's are allowed to design for the whole Chips & Crisps industry. As seen with so many, there is a giant logo, a photographic image of a few Chips, and the flavoring or seasoning - In this case, a couple of peppers and some very red looking Chips. The advantage Lay's have over their rivals is of course the most recognisable brand on the market. Even their overseas companies have the same logo, but with their brand name on the red banner. Lay's could actually have a plain, flavor color coded bag with the name of the flavor and their logo, and sell no fewer bags of Chips. However, this is far from innovative packaging. It is actually as basic as it can be while still remaining modern and evocative. Fortunately, not all smaller companies take Lay's lead. It is therefore to them, that we have to look for exciting and interesting bag designs.
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Crunch
If a food science laboratory of the research and development development area of a major corporation had been employed, with no expense spared, to develop a Chip that was not so thin that it could not do its job, but thin enough to maximise use of a potato, while providing a crispy, smashtastic crunch...
Texture
We were very excited about opening this bag of Chips. The cover story suggests a dark red sliced potato oozing with panic and pain from burning peppers. What we actually got was even scarier! They looked like ordinary Potato Chips with the oil bubbles, curls, broken edges, here and there, but the Chips actually looked very pale. The artificial looking red seasoning was spread evenly over them, and gave the impression that the color had been scared out of the potato. Odd.
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Taste
If you consider that Lay's have sales targets for every product they introduce, it is perhaps understandable that some of their Chips will be pretty basic and bland, while delivering the necessary flavors in a somewhat muted fashion. A Flamin' Hot Chip is therefore a little surprising. With Blair's Death Rain setting the standard for all hot Chips, would Lay's really offer up a Chip that would only appeal to a small section of their potential market? Remarkably, yes! Not Blair's hot, but hot enough to say Lay's got a little brave with a niche product.