Why PepsiCo Foods brought PopCorners’ Super Bowl ad to Canada

The ongoing popularity of Breaking Bad and the opportunity to promote a young brand on a huge scale was irresistible for the company's CMO.

When Super Bowl LVII airs Sunday in front of tens of millions of viewers, PepsiCo Foods Canada will grab the opportunity to simultaneously launch a Canadian campaign to introduce a new flavour of air-popped snack PopCorners.

“Breaking Into Something Good” features a reunion of the original Breaking Bad cast principals Bryan Cranston (Walter White), Aaron Paul (Jesse Pinkman) and Raymond Cruz (Tuco Salamanca), back in the Arizona desert in their RV makeshift lab, perfecting snacks instead of drugs. Creator Vince Gilligan was also brought back to direct the trio.

When Jesse informs Tuco during the 60-second spot that PopCorners comes in six natural flavours and offers him a sample, the gangster angrily barks back seven – a veiled reference to the new Sweet Chili flavour that will be introduced to consumers on Feb. 27.

The ad was first teased by the brand last month, when PepsiCo announced it would be part of its Super Bowl ad buy (it is also running Doritos ads featuring Jack Harlow and Missy Elliot).

When the full PopCorners was debuted online earlier this week, it was revealed that the buy extended to Canadian broadcasts on CTV and TSN, the biggest push the PopCorners brand has yet received in Canada.

Jess Spaulding, CMO at PepsiCo Foods Canada, said the company wanted to pull the ad from the U.S. and make it part of its first Canadian push to capitalize, in part, on the continuing legacy of Breaking Bad. According to content data company Parrot Analytics, the audience demand for Breaking Bad is 16.9 times the demand of the average TV series in Canada over the last 30 days.

But it’s also a chance to amplify the PopCorners brand in front of roughly 15 million people the company expects to watch the Canadian broadcast this year. Spaulding says PopCorners has performed well since launching in the Canadian market – PepsiCo bought parent company BFY in late 2019 – but the brand is still relatively new to snack aisles, so with the opportunity to amplify it on a stage this size proved too good to resist.

“It’s the most viewed event of the year, making it an incredible launch pad to generate excitement for a brand on the rise like PopCorners,” Spaulding says. Breaking Bad is one of the shows Canadians most want to see return, so this spot will no doubt have a lasting impression on them.”

The buy is also fully integrated, running across multiple digital properties, including social media and Netflix’s recently-launched ad-supported tier, for those who might not be watching the game.

“The goal is to ensure as many Canadians as possible are able to experience the iconic reunion, even if they don’t tune into the game,” Spaulding tells Media In Canada. “That means showing up across digital channels before, during and after the game to ensure the experience extends beyond the commercial break. Whether it’s YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Reddit or even Netflix, we developed a holistic media campaign that makes a big impact and weaves the campaign into consumer’s lives in an intrinsic way.”