50% Of Americans Said This Is Their Go-To Brand Of Tortilla Chips

Back in December 2020, The Sponsorship Space made a compelling argument that the popularity of the Canadian sitcom, "Schitt's Creek," may offer a treasure trove of lessons to teach the marketing and advertising world about what consumers crave. Implicit in this position is the fact that "Schitt's Creek" was a show about despicably rich and spoiled people who, after becoming humbled by riotously funny life circumstances, gradually become adorably relatable and therefore imminently loveable. And further, none of this would be possible if it weren't for the fact that all of "Schitt's Creek"'s main characters are played by actors whom the general public has come to adore because they are also relatable and therefore loveable. 

Now, more than a year and a half later, we believe we have stumbled upon a case study that seems consistent with the claims of The Sponsorship Space. A recent survey of Mashed readers in the U.S. asked the question, "What is your go-to brand of tortilla chips?" More than 50% responded with a brand that is now adorably associated with one of the biggest break-out stars of "Schitt's Creek." We're talking about Dan Levy, son of beloved comic genius, Eugene Levy. Dan recently starred in a tortilla chips ad campaign that played on one of his adorable quirks – FOMO, the fear of missing out. Fans of "Schitt's Creek" may remember that it often fueled the adventures of his character, David Rose, on the multi-award-winning fan-favorite sitcom. 

When we asked American readers what is their go-to brand of tortilla chips, we already had something of a suspicion that the top choice would be a "conventional brand," a phrase Grandview Research uses to refer to chips that aren't marketed as organic. That's because Grandview Research crunched the numbers not long ago and found that conventional brands command 93% of the overall tortilla chip market share, according to data from 2018, which appears to be the latest info available. "Easy availability of regular raw material over organic materials is expected to drive the demand for conventional tortilla chips" through 2025, Grandview Research pointed out in its report. "Moreover, conventional products are much cheaper than organic products." And so it wasn't surprising when out of 526 people who responded to our recent survey, 266 (50.57%) said that Tostitos was their go-to brand. 

The other choices were Mission, which earned 112 votes out of 526, or 21.29%; On the Border, which earned 83 votes (15.78%), and Santitas, which earned 65 votes (12.36%). The interesting thing about Santitas coming in dead last in our survey is that, technically, it might be considered a conventional brand in the sense that, like Tostitos, it is manufactured by Frito-Lay. Nevertheless, it doesn't have the name recognition or awesome logo of Tostitos, whose hidden imagery may subconsciously remind us all that tortilla chips are meant to be shared among friends.