• by Danielle Oster , Yesterday

Tostitos is using the new NFL season to highlight the revamped brand’s lack of artificial flavors, colors, or preservatives.

Longtime NFL sponsor Tostitos launched the opening drive of its campaign this week, ahead of the league’s opening day Sept. 4. Created by PepsiCo Foods’ U.S. internal agency D3, the campaign will run throughout the NFL season with five TV ads.

The first spot in the “Tradition Matters” campaign, “Packers Leap,” launched yesterday. It pays homage to the “Lambeau Leap” celebration popularized by former Green Bay Packers star LeRoy Butler III with a leap into the bleachers after a touchdown scored at the Packers’ Lambeau Field.

Other TV ads running during the season will tie the brand to the “Dawg Pound” section at Cleveland Browns home games, Buffalo Bills fans shoveling snow at Highmark Stadium, and the Dallas Cowboys’ Thanksgiving Day game tradition.

In a statement, Jess Spaulding, vice president of PepsiCo Food Master Brands & Portfolio, said the campaign was designed to highlight “the quality ingredients and time-honored craft that are behind their favorite tortilla chips.”

It’s also an apparent attempt to distance the brand from “unhealthy” or “processed food” associations. The campaign uses the “tradition” framing to highlight Tostitos’ as containing “no artificial flavors, colors, or preservatives.” One brand ad in the campaign makes it an even more central component of its message, focusing on how it makes tortilla chips “the traditional way” and uses “whole corn kernels” in its masa dough.

The campaign follows PepsiCo announcing plans to relaunch its Lay’s and Tostitos brands by shedding artificial ingredients during a Q2 earnings call with investors. PepsiCo CEO Ramon LaGuarta said the company thought the move could “elevate the food credentials” of both brands amid heightened consumer scrutiny of snack food ingredients.