And then there’s the symbolic aspect which maybe sounds like reading too much into a bag of chips, but hear me out. The sun shape in the logo doesn’t happen by accident. It’s all about a feeling of warmth, freshness, vitality. Everything joyous that you’d want to associate with your food. The Frito-Lay sun seeks to say, “We’re fun! We’re fresh! We definitely didn’t sit in a warehouse for nine weeks before arriving in your pantry!”
Similarly for Lay’s, the yellow circle essentially gives you a sunny, gold, just-fried vibe. It is of little consequence what conditions the chips were made in (presumably not literally on the sun), the image offered is enough. The brand says “crispy,” “fresh,” “ready to crunch,” without taking one step further to convey that message.
And the colors? Oh yeah, that’s another whole layer. Yellow, according to marketing folks, is an appetite trigger. Cheerful. Fast food places love it. Red is similarly appetite-triggering, but it’s more of a shout. Red grabs awareness, but also makes someone feel something. Together, red and yellow are basically the hack code for snack packaging. There’s a reason why 50% of the products in the chip aisle are red and yellow in color. It’s Pavlov yet somehow also cheese dust.
Next time you hold a bag of Lay’s, maybe give the bag a solid minute of stare time. You will literally see it. The familiar shape, the color echo, that subdued nod to the sun chip shape of the father brand. It might be subtle, but it’s there.
Whether or not it matters is a different story. Most people are in the process of ripping the bag open to overthink the conscious choices of the design. But nevertheless, there’s something somewhat corny about knowing that the logo is not random. It’s a little quiet tie back to a name that has been etching itself into your subconscious for decades.
Feel free to go eat your Classic or Sour Cream & Onion or whatever your dip is, because now you’ve got this bit of trivia bouncing around in your head too. Lay’s didn’t arrive from nothingness. They’ve got an entire powerhouse of snacks that has been quietly winking at you with the logo the entire time.
Oh, and if you’re into this sort of “brand logos have something secret” rabbit hole, apparently there is something in Wendy’s logo too? That one’s weird emotional though. You’ll see when you look.
