The statement follows a spark of media reports after PepsiCo CEO told Freakonomics that snacks for women could be "designed and packaged differently" and the company was getting ready to launch "a bunch of them."
Nooyi’s gender difference
In the interview, Nooyi said young guys love single-serve Doritos packs, noting “they lick their fingers with great glee and when they reach the bottom of the bag, they pour the little broken pieces into their mouth, because they don’t want to lose that taste of the flavor and the broken chips in the bottom."
She added that women would love to do the same, but don’t.
"They don’t like to crunch too loudly in public... and they don’t lick their fingers generously and they don’t like to pour the little broken pieces and the flavor into their mouth," she said.
“For women, [it's about] low-crunch, the full taste profile and not having so much of the flavor stick on the fingers ... and how can you put it in a purse? Because women love to carry a snack in their purse.”
Nooyi’s interview has drawn criticism from social media since it aired, such as “this ‘Lady Doritos’ concept is stupid. I happily crunch away my chips inside a library and lick the cheesy dust off my fingers” and “I’m so glad there is Lady Doritos now. I couldn’t figure out how to eat the man kind” on Twitter.
Doritos - part of PepsiCo’s Frito-Lay portfolio - was the best-selling brand in the US tortilla chips category in 2017, according to Statista data. It made $1.48bn worth of sales last year.