Lay's Stay Golden Bets on Anitta to Redefine Snack Culture
Lay's Stay Golden is a celebrity-led film campaign launched in the United States in January 2023, featuring Grammy-nominated global superstar Anitta and a music-driven commercial titled Beat of Joy, built around a remix of her hit single Envolver produced using over 6,000 potatoes.
The campaign arrived in the United States market on January 17, 2023, as reported by the PepsiCo Newsroom, positioning Lay's not as a passive snack brand but as an active participant in Latino cultural celebration. Stay Golden centres on a straightforward emotional proposition: that the act of snacking can embody confidence, joy, and individual expression. Anitta, the first solo Latin artist to reach the top of the global Spotify chart with Envolver, according to The Drum, gave that proposition an undeniable cultural credential. Her involvement extended beyond a standard endorsement; the campaign was constructed around her artistic identity, with her own music serving as the sonic and creative foundation of the hero spot.
The Beat of Joy commercial was scheduled to air in the United States during Next Level Chef following the Super Bowl on February 12, 2023, and again during Premio on February 23, 2023, as reported by Ad Age. That media placement strategy positioned the campaign at the intersection of mainstream American television and specifically Latino cultural programming, signalling a deliberate dual-audience intent. The Frito-Lay Collection branding framed Stay Golden within a broader creative universe for the parent brand, while the campaign's single media asset — one film — concentrated the entire creative weight into a tightly executed, high-visibility format. Clapboard scores Stay Golden at 63 out of 100, reflecting a campaign that executes its cultural ambition competently but leaves strategic depth partially unrealised.
Stacy Taffet, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Frito-Lay, articulated the strategic intent directly. According to the PepsiCo Newsroom, Taffet stated that many multi-ethnic voices and experiences shape American culture, and Stay Golden was designed to reflect that reality. The campaign's strategic core is the recognition that cultural resonance, not product specification, drives emotional loyalty among younger snack consumers in the United States.
The savory snacks category in the United States sits within a growing global market. Research and Markets estimates the global savory snacks sector maintained a historical growth rate of approximately 6.5 percent CAGR between 2018 and 2023, with a forecasted rate of around 5.5 percent CAGR from 2023 to 2028. Within this competitive landscape, Lay's faces sustained pressure from category rivals including Pringles, which leans heavily on platform-agnostic pop culture marketing, and Doritos, a fellow Frito-Lay brand that has historically dominated music and event sponsorship territory. Stay Golden represents Lay's making a deliberate move onto that music-culture terrain rather than ceding it entirely to competitors.
The choice of Anitta is a precise strategic decision, not merely a celebrity hire. She is Grammy-nominated, holds a documented record as the first solo Latin artist to top the global Spotify chart with Envolver, per The Drum, and commands an audience that spans Latin America and the United States with genuine cross-cultural authority. By anchoring Stay Golden to her persona and her existing music catalogue, Lay's accessed an established emotional connection that the brand itself could not have manufactured independently. The campaign's Latino-focused framing, identified by Ad Age, signals that Frito-Lay is treating multicultural marketing in the United States as a primary growth lever rather than a supplementary channel.
Third Ear served as the lead creative agency on Stay Golden, with Highdive in a supporting agency role, as documented by Ad Age and confirmed by primary sources. Production was handled by Stink Films and Habitant, giving the campaign a production infrastructure capable of delivering the inventive concept at the centre of the Beat of Joy spot.
Nick Roney directed the commercial, with Fatima Robinson serving as choreographer and Marc Gómez del Moral as cinematographer, as reported by Ad Age. That combination of creative collaborators — a director known for visual dynamism, a choreographer with deep roots in music video and performance culture, and a cinematographer capable of rendering movement with cinematic weight — reflects the elevated production ambition Stay Golden was built around. Adweek described the campaign as an inventive, music-led activation, specifically noting the use of more than 6,000 potatoes to power a track featuring Anitta. That detail is not a novelty stunt; it is a deliberate piece of creative engineering that fuses Lay's product origin — the potato — with Anitta's musical identity in a single, shareable idea.
The decision to remix Envolver using potatoes as a sound-generating instrument transforms an otherwise conventional celebrity partnership into something with genuine earned-media potential. It gives journalists, fans, and social audiences a specific, repeatable narrative hook: the snack's own raw ingredient becomes the instrument. Anitta herself, quoted by the PepsiCo Newsroom, described the campaign as capturing the feeling that brings together all her passions and reflecting the mindset she holds at this moment in her life. That alignment between talent's self-perception and creative execution is rare in celebrity advertising and suggests the creative development process was genuinely collaborative rather than transactional. The single-film format concentrates all of this craft into one high-stakes asset, with no secondary creative to dilute the central idea.
No verified performance data for Stay Golden is publicly available at the time of publication. Frito-Lay and PepsiCo have not released figures for view counts, sales lift, brand tracking shifts, or earned media value attributable specifically to this campaign, and no third-party measurement source has published audited results.
Structural analysis, however, points to several indicators of effectiveness. The media placement strategy — airing the Beat of Joy spot during Next Level Chef post-Super Bowl and during Premio, as reported by Ad Age — ensured exposure to both a mass American audience and a concentrated Latino viewership within the same campaign window. That dual placement multiplies reach without requiring two separate creative executions, which represents sound media efficiency. The campaign's earned press coverage from Adweek and Ad Age at launch suggests the creative concept generated genuine industry attention rather than passing without notice. The 6,000-potato remix mechanic provided a story that required no paid amplification to travel; it is inherently repeatable as a conversation point.
The Clapboard Score of 63 out of 100 reflects a campaign that delivers on creative intent and cultural targeting but stops short of the deeper strategic integration that would push it into higher-scoring territory. The use of a single media asset limits the campaign's ability to build narrative across touchpoints, and the absence of a documented content or social extension means the potato remix idea does not appear to have been maximised as a platform. Against competitors like Doritos, which routinely constructs multi-touchpoint campaigns around a single cultural moment, Stay Golden reads as a well-executed entry point rather than a fully realised campaign system.
Stay Golden is a Lay's film campaign launched in the United States in January 2023. It features Grammy-nominated artist Anitta in a commercial titled Beat of Joy, built around a remix of her single Envolver produced using over 6,000 potatoes, celebrating Latino joy and individual expression through snacking.
Anitta is a Grammy-nominated global recording artist. According to The Drum, she became the first solo Latin artist to top the global Spotify chart with her single Envolver. Lay's selected her because her cultural authority across Latin American and United States audiences aligned directly with the campaign's Latino-focused creative strategy.
Nick Roney directed the Beat of Joy commercial, as reported by Ad Age. Fatima Robinson served as choreographer and Marc Gómez del Moral as cinematographer. Third Ear was the lead creative agency, with Highdive in a supporting role and Stink Films and Habitant handling production.
Stay Golden launched on January 17, 2023, per the PepsiCo Newsroom. The Beat of Joy spot aired in the United States during Next Level Chef after the Super Bowl on February 12, 2023, and during Premio on February 23, 2023, targeting both mainstream and specifically Latino television audiences.
Lay's Stay Golden receives a Clapboard Score of 63 out of 100. The score reflects competent cultural targeting and strong creative craft, including an inventive potato-powered music remix, while noting that the single-asset format and limited documented multi-touchpoint extension prevent a higher rating.
Stay Golden operates under the Frito-Lay Collection brand framework, positioning the campaign within a wider creative identity for Lay's parent portfolio. According to the PepsiCo Newsroom, Frito-Lay Senior Vice President Stacy Taffet framed the campaign as a reflection of multi-ethnic voices shaping American culture, establishing multicultural marketing as a primary growth lever.
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