PepsiCo's Frito-Lay Brand Teams With LeBron James For Marketing Campaign

PepsiCo Inc.'s PEP Frito-Lay division is teaming with basketball great LeBron James on a new marketing campaign for its Ruffles potato chips brand.

What Happened: The company has long distinguished the Ruffles brand from the competition by highlighting the ridges on its chips. Based on that design, the new endeavor under the “Own Your Ridges” banner will debut on Christmas Day with a television advertisement called “Ruffles D.N.A.” In this advertisement, James recalls the “ridges” that defined his life while four other individuals who overcame obstacles to succeed will also be included.

“The idea of owning your ridges and embracing what makes us all different resonates with me on a lot of levels,” said James in a press statement. “I'm excited about the depth of the ‘Ruffles D.N.A.’ campaign and being able to engage everyone with its empowering message.”

What Else Happened: As part of this new partnership, Ruffles and the PepsiCo Foundation are teaming with the LeBron James Family Foundation in a new initiative to help economically challenged communities through education, job training and other wraparound support initiatives.

"LeBron is fully committed to social change and making a positive impact on communities," said Stacy Taffet, vice president of marketing, Frito-Lay North America. "With this partnership, we look forward to the collective impact we can make in communities together."