• by Erik Oster , March 13, 2024

“Barbie” may have come up almost empty at the Oscars -- it won just one, for Original Song --  but the brand partnerships leveraging the Mattel icon’s renewed cultural cachet just keep coming.

The latest brand to tap into this brand power is Stacy’s Pita Chips, which announced a deal with Barbie in celebration of Women’s History Month.

“Barbie and Stacy’s Pita Chips share a common goal of inspiring women to achieve their dreams, so this partnership is a match made in ‘herstory,’” Rhasheda Boyd, vice president of marketing at Stacy’s parent company Frito-Lay North America, said in a statement. “

The collab kicks off with limited-edition Barbie-inspired Stacy’s Pita Chips packaging, celebrating the brand stories of the two women-founded brands -- as well as Barbie’s 65th anniversary. The bags feature a Barbie-pink metallic exterior (naturally) -- in both a regular, human-sized version (filled with Stacy’s Simply Naked pita chips), and a Barbie-sized one designed as a perfect fit for the doll.

Before the full-sized bags are  made available to purchase at retailers this fall, fans can enter now for a chance to win a Stacy’s Career Barbie Kit that includes both bags, along with an exclusive Career Barbie doll and other prizes, by liking and commenting on the brand’s Instagram post for the giveaway.

In collaboration with the Barbie Dream Gap Project, Stacy’s is also pledging a $100,000 donation to mentorship nonprofit Step Up. The donation will help sponsor career exploration conferences in Chicago, Los Angeles, Nashville, and New York, providing 1,000 hours of mentorship to middle- and high-school-aged girls.

The campaign also comes on the heels of Stacy’s announcing the winners of this year’s Stacy’s Rise Project, an annual grant supporting women business founders which the brand introduced in 2017. For Stacy’s Rise Project Class of 2024, the brand awarded a grant of $25,000 to each of 15 North American founders, along with  mentorship from Frito-Lay and PepsiCo leadership, connections to a peer network of women entrepreneurs, and increased visibility through Stacy’s brand platform and a spotlight on its FoundedByHer business directory.