Fritos (History, FAQ, Pictures & Commercials)

Fritos are corn chips made by deep-frying extruded whole cornmeal. Fritos come in the form of long, skinny, wavy strips of corn chips, usually golden-orange in color. Fritos has a texture that is almost like tortilla chips but is different in its own way. Frito’s comes in its original flavor, as well as other varieties such as “Flamin Hot” and “Chili Cheese” flavors.

Fritos in its original flavor is somewhat tame compared to the newer flavors the Fritos Brand has launched over the years, but nonetheless, Fritos’s original flavor is popular and has helped make the Fritos brand a much-loved snack.

Information

The Fritos brand consists of corn chips of various styles and includes dipping sauce as well. The original Fritos consist of corn chips made by deep-frying extruded whole cornmeal. Original Fritos comes as a thin and somewhat curly or wavy strip of an orange-gold corn chip. Other types of Fritos include Fritos Scoops, a type of corn chip that is in the shape that allowed to scoop dipping sauce and fusilli-shaped chips that were released in South Africa.

Dipping sauce made by the brand includes Fritos Hot Bean Dip, made with jalapeno peppers. Fritos has numerous types of flavors released in addition to its original, such as Chili Cheese flavored Fritos and Classic Ranch flavored Fritos. Fritos has been compared to a product called fritas, standing for “little-fried things.”

Fritos is produced by Fritos-Lay, a merged subsidiary company of PepsiCo. Fritos was originally made solely by The Frito Company, founded by Charles Elmer Doolin, which was based on his mother’s kitchen. In the year 1932, an ad was placed for San Antonio Express classifieds that read “Corn chips business for sale, a new food product, making good money.” In 1932 Charles Doolin borrowed $100 dollars from his mother to buy a corn chip recipe, a handheld potato ricer, and 19 retail accounts from a corn chip manufacturer. Charles Doolin, his brother, and his mother all helped to produce the corn chips that they called Fritos in the Doolin family’s mother’s kitchen.

They had a production capacity of about 10 pounds of Fritos a day when they started making Fritos in the family kitchen. Their initial revenue from this early production of Fritos was about $8 to $10 dollars a day, with profit after expenses being about 2 dollars a day. It has also been reported that Fritos may have been produced in the inventor’s mother’s garage and that the house next door was bought to expand production. By 1933 production of Fritos increased 10 fold to about 100 pounds of Fritos per day, with it being said that this was due to the acquisition of a hammer press.

Charles Doolin said he was obsessed with Fritos and was fixed on working on it, and used his family to experiment with new ideas. His daughter said he discovered an extruded chip at a gas station when searching for a chip to have at the table that would not stale as fast as tortillas. Once the company expanded, Charles Doolin was said to have hidden kitchens all over the place, and would often call employees into his office and have him taste new flavors for Fritos.

The inventor worked constantly on Fritos and his company and was very industrious with his expansion and invention with Fritos and the Fritos brand and company. Eventually, the Fritos company expanded into plants in Dallas and Tulsa by 1934, and by 1947, they had plants in Los Angeles and Denver and licensed franchises nationwide.

By 1955, the Fritos Company owned more than fifty manufacturing facilities, including ones in locations such as Hawaii and Venezuela, as well as a number of “Frito farms” across Texas, where Doolin grew corn and other crops for use in his products. Assembly line production techniques were becoming more common and were used to help mass produce Fritos for nationwide sale going into the 1950s. In addition to mass-producing original Fritos, the company began releasing multiple new flavors and styles of Fritos, and the Fritos Company also created brand new products such as Cheetos Puffs, that they produce alongside their Fritos line of products.

Fritos has had multiple mascots over the years, with the original mascot for Fritos being the Frito Kid, who reigned from 1952 to 1967. From the year 1967 until about 1971, the mascot for Fritos was the Frito Bandito and was discontinued due to complaints about Frito Bandito’s image. Another mascot for Fritos was the Muncha Bunch, a group of cowboys promoting the Fritos brand, and eventually replacing them was W.C. Fritos, a mascot for Fritos that was modeled after real-life comedian W.C. Fields. Fritos has also released several commercials advertising Fritos, often geared to teens and adults.

Fritos first began being sold in South Africa in the year 1963. In October 2018 a report was made claiming the price of Fritos in White House vending machines rose despite recent reductions in the price of corn. The report speculated the price increase to be due to prices other than the costs of the food itself, such as shipping costs or maybe tariffs.

The Inventor Of Fritos

Fritos was invented by Charles Elmer Doolin, who was born in Kansas U.S.A. Charles Doolin was a manager at Highland Park Confectionery when he bought a corn chip recipe and created Fritos and the Fritos Company in 1932.

The Year Fritos Was Invented

Fritos was invented in the year 1932, in the kitchen of the inventor’s mother’s kitchen. When first invented Fritos was produced in small batches, amounting to only 10 pounds a day.

The Company That Makes Fritos

Fritos is made by Frito-Lay. The company Frito-Lay, Inc. is a subsidiary of PepsiCo and makes other snacks such as Doritos and Tostitos.

Mascots

Fritos has had several mascots over the history of the snack. The first mascot for Fritos was The Frito Kid, who was a blonde cartoon cowboy. He would appear in television commercials advertising Fritos corn chips and used slogans such as “it tastes better with Fritos”, and had a friendly boyish charm to him.

The Fritos kid is or has been a star performer at Casa de Fritos, an apparently authentic Mexican restaurant in Disneyland’s Frontierland. Matchbook covers would advertise the Frito Kid and Casa de Fritos by having “Meet Me At Disneyland” written on the colorful covers.

The Frito Kid was well-liked and had his own merchandise for sale, such as mugs and toys. The Frito Kids had his own comic book series and was named the official representative of New Orleans St residents. At Disney, for the first 10 years of its operation, you could buy Fritos from a Fritos Kid vending machine that featured a mountain that would send down the beg of Fritos to the customer with the help of his assistant, Klondike. Michael Dunn, the actor, dressed up and played as the Fritos Kid on several occasions. The Frito Kid was introduced in the year 1952 and was retired as a mascot for the brands advertising in 1967.

The second mascot for the Fritos brand was Frito Bandito, a Mexican bandit introduced in 1967, who was being targeted by the “Frito Bureau of Investigation.” Frito Bandito was drawn by Tex Avery and voiced by Mel Blanc from Looney Tunes. He originally had a gold tooth and stubble and appeared in several commercials, often trying to obtain himself some Fritos however he could. But complaints about his image caused the stubble and gold tooth to be removed, and eventually, negative feedback about the mascot’s image had the character being removed altogether as a mascot for the brand in 1971.

The Frito Bandito character was created by the advertising firm called Foote, Cone & Belding. The character was deemed to be popular by some people and was used for a time in all of the print and television advertising for Fritos due to it. The mascot was retired in 1971 due to complaints about the character’s image regarding his heritage, including a lawsuit by the National Mexican-American Anti-Defamation Committee and other groups for $610 million for a claim of malicious defamation of their ethnic group. (We could not find the result of that case.)

The Muncha Bunch group were the next mascots for Fritos. The Muncha Bunch was a trio of cowboys promoting the brand. The group of mascots consists of 1 man with a mustache and a white hat as the leader, with his 2 sidekicks having tan hats with no mustache, and one of them having red hair.

The Muncha Bunch were included in television commercials for the brand and would be marketed on posters and advertise free coloring pencils in packages of Fritos corn chips. The leader of the group would say in one commercial at the time that “I gots a PLAN in much HEAD!” The Muncha Bunch group’s time as a mascot was short-lived, and they were retired a short time later, lastly hardly a year.

Another mascot for Fritos was created for the snack in 1972 was W.C. Fritos, a character inspired by the famous comedian W.C. Fields. The mascot had characteristics after the man the character took inspiration from and included a top and a cane. W.C. Fritos was shown in television commercials and an “autographed” poster of the mascot could be found inside of specially marked 6-packs of Fritos corn chips for a limited time. W.C. Fritos would promote the brand in a manner that kept up with the western bandit theme, often describing Fritos chips as a form of gold to be given to placate children who were viewed as the bandits. W.C. Fritos seemed to be a big hit with children, and the mascot was viewed as humorous, and special W.C. Fritos edition pencil erasers have been included in boxes of Fritos.

Where To Buy

Fritos is a somewhat common snack and can be found in several stores. Some stores that carry or have carried Fritos in stock are Target and Lowes. It can be more difficult to some of the other flavors of Fritos’ typical store locations. However, to find other flavors of Fritos in stores you may have to look a bit harder. Fritos is a bit harder to find in some stores than something like a Hershey Bar but is still easy enough to find.

Stores That Sell Fritos

Here is a list of some stores that may sell Fritos

• Target
• ShopRite
• Walmart
• Lowe’s Home Improvement
• Subway
• Walgreen’s

Logo

Types And Flavors

• Original
• Flamin’ Hot
• Spicy Jalapeño
• Ballpark Nacho
• Sausage & Chipotle flavor
• Lightly Salted (Similar to the original flavor Fritos but contains 50% less salt)
• Pinch of Salt
• Salt and Lime (Sold in Mexico)
• Classic Ranch
• Spare Rib
• Tomato Sauce (Sold in South Africa)
• Adobados (Sold in Mexico)
• Chili Cheese flavored Fritos
• Chile and Lime (Sold in Mexico)
• Sweet Chilli (Sold in South Africa)
• Chutney ( Sold in South Africa)
• Bar-B-Q
• Bar-B-Q Hoops Fritos (Sold in Canada)
• Chorizo and Chipotle (Sold in Mexico)
• Tapatio Hot Sauce Flavored
• Chedder Ranch Flavor (Twists version)
• Tomato Ribbons (The Fritos Ribbons version is similar to regular Fritos in terms of its shape. Sold in South Africa)
• Sweet Chilli (Twists version)
• Peri Peri Waves (Fritos styled rippled chips that are sold in South Africa.)

Spin-Offs And Varieties

• Fritos Scoops: This version of Fritos are made to scoop up sauces and dips. Fritos Scoops are made for those who like the flavor of Fritos with dip, and allows them to easily scoop up sauces, dips, and salsa. Also comes in a party size. Scoops was consumer tested in Houston and the Central Gulf area in May 1993.
• Fritos Twists: This spin-off of the original Fritos is in a spiral shape. Said to be rather crunchy, Fritos Twists has roughly the look and size of a Frito but has about 5 tights twists in its shape. Fritos Twists comes in flavors such as Cheddar Ranch and Honey BBQ. There is also a version just called “Fritos Twist”, without the letter s, that comes in the flavor Nacho Cheese.
• Fritos Hoops: The Hoops version of Fritos is a tubular shaped snack that is crispy and makes a big crunch when you chew it. The bag consists of slightly different sizes of tube shaped Fritos with a similar color to the original version. Fritos Hoops is sold in Bar-B-Q flavor and is marketed in Canada.
• Fritos Racerz: A Jeff Gordon themed spin-off, Fritos Racerz were a style of Fritos that were shaped into the form of Jeff Gordon’s race car. This limited edition variety was released in the year 2009.
• Fritos Taco: Taco Bell released a Taco Bell Fritos Taco and Chili Cheese Fritos Taco.
• Fritos Chili Cheese Jr. Wrap: A wrap that includes Fritos and is made at Sonic.
• Fritos Chili Pie: A special Chilli Pie made with Fritos and is produced at Sonic. Daisy Dean Doolin first came up with the idea of combining the chips with chili and cheese to create a type of Fritos pie.
• Fritos Ribbons: This version looks very much like the original Fritos and is hard to discern what the difference is, although they may be slightly more curly. Fritos Ribbons are sold in South Africa, where Fritos are fairly popular. The Ribbons variety is sold in flavors like Tomato and Barbecue.
• Fritos Waves: Fritos Waves is an odd looking version of a Frito that was released in South Africa. Fritos Waves have a zig-zag or otherwise “wave” pattern to them. With sharp angles vertically giving the chip a much more hard and crunchy look to it. This seems like a snack that you might snap off in pieces with your teeth, rather then eat whole. It still looks like a Frito though, just, wavy. This version comes in Peri Peri flavor.
• Subway’s Fritos Chicken Enchilada Melt: Subway and the Fritos brand joined together to create this beast of a sub. Featuring Fritos on a Chicken Enchilada Melt, Subway style.
• Fritos Pie Pizza: Little Caesars created a Fritos Pie Pizza, and started it with a limited test launch in the year 2019.

The Popularity of Fritos

Fritos enjoys strong popularity and is one of the better-selling snack products in the U.S as of 2019. Although the snack is very humble with simple ingredients, it has maintained a strong following for many years. There could be several reasons for this popularity, taste being the first thing that people may consider of those.

Fritos has a strong taste, yet is a simple corn chip product, and the snack’s taste is unmistakable. This could be why Fritos is popular, but maybe it is the simplicity of it; Nothing complicated, just salted corn chips. Fritos are is also an easy go-to snack for many consumer demographics, such as vegans and vegetarians, and helps try to keep itself relevant with new flavors as time goes on.

Experiences With Fritos

I always liked Fritos back as a kid and never was much of a chocolate lover myself. I always found something about Fritos that makes it stand out. Maybe it’s the taste or how it is just different, but I always like them the best. My sister loved candy like Snickers, but I was never big on that chocolate, too heavy and mushy.

That strong salty flavor and whatever spice they put on it is music to my taste buds. Even once I grew up and became an “adult” I still feel drawn to a bag of corn chips when I can go for a snack or something to watch a movie on the internet with.

Advertising And Promotions

Fritos corn chips have engaged in a wide variety of advertising and promotion, including TV commercials, billboards, and magazines ads. One of the first billboards for Fritos was constructed early in the products’ lifetime and a picture was taken of it by Charles Doolin. The billboard advertised the Frito as a delicious and nutritious corn chip snack. Magazine adverts and store-counter promotional signs would promote Fritos as being great for parties, snacks, fishing trips, drinks, and picnics.

Life Magazine had a promotion for Fritos that advertised the snack to be “Truly Krisp And Tender”. When Fritos Scoops was introduced, a Spin-off that was better for dipping, the brand partnered with country singer Reba McEntire to sponsor a national concert series and help promote the Fritos brand.

Fritos has aired many television commercials advertising both original Fritos and the product’s spin-offs such as Scoops and Fritos Racerz. In one such TV commercial, a giant boy was attempting to catch and eat a race car during a dream as a promotion for Fritos Racerz, a race car shaped Fritos.

Another TV commercial for the Frito involved showing off the new spin-off for the brand, Scoops, and making pretend industrial sounds like a crane and work crew to promote how the new Scoops variety of Frito was useful for scooping up things like dipping sauce. More vintage commercials for Fritos from the 1970’s show Fritos being advertised as a way to add more fun to your meal, while catch phrased filled songs like “Munch a bunch” played in the background of the commercial as a slogan for the product.

Packaging

Fritos favors the colors yellow and red on its packaging. The original Fritos packages have completely red and yellow colors on their bags. Other flavors of Fritos change the primary color of its packaging, such as the Jalapeno flavor using green, or Fritos Scoops using the color blue as its primary color. However, even these varieties still use yellow and red around the name on the product’s label.

Fritos Flavor Twists Honey BBQ uses a gray-blue colored packaging style, with the characteristic yellow and red colors Fritos is known for shown to a lesser degree but still prominently at the top of the bag.

The name “Fritos” is always prominently displayed in the center-top of the bag, showing off the product’s name and companies name-sake. Fritos has also been released to a test market in a soda can styled package, the patent for this container apparently did not go through, and only a small amount were able to be obtained.

Slogans

Some slogans for Fritos are “Munch a Bunch of Fritos” and “it tastes better with Fritos”. Another slogan was used by a mascot for the brand, W. C. Fritos, who tended to use the saying “Greetings, my little Chip-adees,”.

Competitors

Fritos is a fairly unique product with not much exactly like it. It is not like your average potato chip brand that has a multitude of competitors to contend with and products that swamp the market that is exactly like it. However, while there is nothing exactly like them, Fritos does have some competition.

Pringles, while not exactly the same as Fritos, still competes in a similar market. Both have a very different style and taste, however, but those that like one product will often like the other. Doritos is a close competitor to Fritos, as Doritos’ texture and taste are somewhat in the ballpark that Fritos can provide.

The good news for Fritos is that Doritos is owned by the same company. But sometimes even the same company kills its own products due to competition from another one of its products. It is not surprising that Fritos has some competition to keep it working on improving itself, as the snack market is often very fierce, and Fritos will have to work hard to differentiate itself in the hotly contested market.

Recipes

One recipe that uses Fritos is called Fritos dessert bars. It uses Fritos Scoops, peanut butter, Light Karo Syrup, Chocolate Chips, and sugar as its primary ingredients. The Recipe is simple enough to make and looks delicious. It comes out as a concoction of Fritos and chocolate chips, held together by gooey peanut butter and syrup. You can check out more about the Recipe at https://www.rockabyeparents.com/fritos-dessert-bars/

A simple recipe you can use to broaden your flavor options is to make chocolate-dipped Fritos. It is quick to make and adds some much-welcomed sweetness to the snack. All you need to do is get some ready to melt chocolate and maybe a bit of coconut oil and mix it together to get a melted chocolaty concoction to dip Fritos in. It is a simple and easy way to get yourself some chocolate submerged Fritos to enjoy, and the flavors do make a good combination.

3 Cheese Fritos is another simple but tasty recipe to use to make a good snack. You take Mozzarella cheese, Extra Sharp White Cheddar cheese, and Provolone cheese, put it over a layer of Fritos on a cooking tray, then bake it until the cheese melts over the Fritos. This gives the snack a warm cheesy flavor that makes you feel toasty inside, and you can use more cheese if you want to have a more cheesy snack to enjoy.

Peanut Butter Fritos Crunch is another recipe that uses crushed Fritos and peanut butter. You put the Fritos on a cooking board or pan, and crush them with a heavy flat piece of cookware until you have them into crushed pieces. Then you thoroughly mix the crushed pieces into a bowl of peanut butter to snack on. A lot of Fritos could be needed depending on the size of your bowl, and you can experiment with the mix ratio until you get the perfect proportion for you.

Fritos Breaded Chicken is an interesting choice for those who wish to use crushed up Fritos and mix it into their chicken breading.

Fun Ideas

Here are some fun ideas to do with Fritos. Not that we actually recommend doing all of them.

• Use Fritos as a counting game for your children. Ask them how many Fritos they have, and then add some or take some away, and ask them to count how many they have now. Tell them about addition and subtraction while your at it. When the kids cooperate, reward them with some Fritos. This is a great way to mix snacks and education to help kids learn.
• Use Fritos to play basket ball by tossing them through hoops, keep track of how many each person gets through the hoop. Fritos can be thrown surprisingly far, unlike other snacks that would waft in the air, Fritos has enough muster to sail through the air more effectively. So use Fritos to play a type of basket ball with, you can dribble it, but you can throw it. You can then reward the winner by letting them be the one to eat the remaining Fritos as a snack. It’s a nice way to entertain yourself with food when you are bored. (Don’t eat the ones that you throw!)
• Fill a bathtub full of Fritos and lay in it,take a selfie for bonus points. Why? Because it sounds fun. Who does not think its amusing to lay in a bathtub full of Fritos? (Just be cautious if you do, who knows how sharp those things could be?)
• Collect every flavor of Fritos. (Come on, you know you want to!)
• Make Fritos art by putting the pieces together in interesting ways. Use different flavors to add some new color into the mix, or just put them in a way to make something unique. You could make the next great work that fascinates people, and this snack does have an interesting look to it already, so you could make something extraordinary.

Ingredients

The following information is for a 28-gram serving size of Fritos Original Corn Chips

Ingredients:

• Corn
• Corn Oil
• Salt
• No Preservatives

Nutrition

Serving Size:	28g	% Daily Value *
Calories per serving	160
Calories from Fat	90
Total Fat	10g	16%
Saturated Fat	1.5g	7%
Trans Fat	0g	0%
Cholesterol	0g	0%
Sodium	170mg	7%
Total Carbohydrate	15g	5%
Dietary Fiber	1g	4%
Sugars	Less than 1g
Protein	2g
Vitamin A		0%
Vitamin C		0%
Calcium		2%
Iron		0%
Vitamin E		6%
Vitamin B6		2%
Phosphorus		4%

• Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.

(Information taken from https://www.fritolay.com/snacks/product-page/fritos/fritos-original-corn-chips)

Trademark Information

Fritos is a trademark with the registration number 0502325, which has a filing date of 1947-08-05. This trademark has a First Use Anywhere Date of 1932-03-27. The owner is listed as FRITO-LAY NORTH AMERICA, INC, who is listed as the 12th new owner after registration. Another trademark for Fritos has a registration number of 3240429, with the registration date showing as 9/21/1948, and the filing date showing as 8/5/1947.

The owner is listed as Frito-Lay North America, Inc, and the First Use Anywhere date is shown as of 3/27/1932. Frito-Lay once brought a lawsuit against Medallion Foods for alleged trademark infringement. Frito-Lay alleged that Medallion Foods’ tortilla chips result from processes, which infringe one or more claims of United States Patent No. 6,610,344 On March 5, 2013, a jury returned a verdict against Frito-Lay North America (“Frito-Lay”) and in favor of Medallion Foods and Ralcorp Holdings.

Pictures

Commercials

Here are some commercial videos for Fritos

FRITOS COMMERCIAL VIDEO.

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FRITOS TV COMMERCIAL FROM THE YEAR 1999. FEATURING FRITOS SHAPED LIKE JEFF GORDON’S RACE CAR.

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COMMERCIAL VIDEO FROM 1994 FEATURING FRITOS SCOOPS.

FAQ

Here are some questions and answers about Fritos.

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