Most people feel they could write a better commercial than the ones shown on the annual Super Bowl orgy of advertising, and now one company has decided to give viewers that chance. As reported last week in AdWeek magazine, Pepsico is soliciting user-created ads for its Doritos brand through Yahoo, which is hosting a contest that will allow consumers to vote on which of the submitted commercials is their favorite.

"Doritos said there are no professional requirements for entries, whether from would-be filmmakers or those simply with a passion for tortilla chips," the article reported. It added that the advertiser will accept entries from Oct. 2 to Dec. 1.

Five finalists will get prizes of $10,000 each, the official contest Web site says, with a grand prize winner getting his or her ad shown during the Super Bowl.

According to the Web site:
"Put your love of Doritos® brand Tortilla Chips on screen. Maybe it’s a story about eating your first Doritos chips or what life is like for the spices on the surface of the chip. Anything...."

Well, not quite anything--the contest guidelines also say, "No swearing, no naked people, nothing violent or offensive."

You'll have to get your love of tortilla chips across quickly, though; the Doritos spot is a 30-second commercial. "Doritos chips pack a lot of power in a small space, so can you," the official Web site suggests.

So there ya go. I can't remember my first time eating Doritos, but it was probably when I was a fat kid at someone's barbecue and I was shoveling junk food down my mouth as fast as I could before someone pulled me away. I doubt I was thinking about what life was like for the spices on the surface of the chip, or even cared what brand of chip it was.

So once you're done writing your masterpiece of a script for Xomba, you can jump up the the big leagues with one for a major high-sodium-content snack chip. It doesn't get any better than that! Until the year after, when Xomba will doubtless be running a Super Bowl ad of its own.

http://promotions.yahoo.com/doritos/