• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, February 1, 2024

At a time when Madison Avenue's media planners and buyers are consumed with controlling excess advertising frequency, the Lay's potato chips brand tomorrow will lean into it in a big way. To celebrate this year's Groundhog Day, the Frito-Lay's brand has made a multi-daypart buy across several ABC properties that will air a series of spots evoking the time loop vibe of the classic 1993 movie of the same name.

The spots, which feature actor Stephen Tobolowsky, who portrayed the irritatingly repetitive character "Ned" in the film, depicts him caught in a time loop buying different flavored varieties of Lay's chips in a supermarket checkout aisle while engaging in variations of the same banter with the cashier.

Not surprisingly, the creative team behind the serialized campaign includes Ryan Reynolds' Maximum Effort and Jimmy Kimmel's Kimmelot.

Appropriately, the press release sent by ABC includes the same canned quote, attributed to four different people behind it (see below).

  Happy Groundhog Lay's!