• by Sarah Mahoney , Yesterday

As anticipation for the next and final season of Netflix’s “Stranger Things” keeps building, brands are outdoing themselves to be part of the hype. Doritos has just unveiled another tie-in, with a TV spot that spoofs 1980s-era telethons. And Eggo, presumably still Eleven’s favorite, is rolling out a bright-red variety, flavored with strawberries.

The Doritos spot invites viewers to “Chip In” and leave messages for the characters of Hawkins, the fictional Indiana town where the plucky actors will try, once and for all, to vanquish the Upside Down. Fans can call 1-855-4-HAWKINS, and they don’t have to talk to just any 1987-style actor: Some of that decade’s greats are staffing the phones: actor David Hasselhoff, musician Paula Abdul and Alf, everyone’s favorite alien life form.

Doritos seeded the campaign by putting the telethon phone number on bags of the brand’s newest flavor, Doritos Collisions Stranger Pizza x Cool Ranch, which is now on shelves. Throughout the campaign, it will run a series of digital spots featuring “The Hoff,” Paula and Alf, “highlighting fan milestones, eerie infiltrations of the Upside Down and unexpected transmissions from Hawkins.”

Select fan messages will even be broadcast across Doritos' social channels and high billboards.

“Doritos has always been about bold flavor and even bolder creative, so when 'Stranger Things' called, first we geeked out as huge fans, and then we quite literally answered with a full-blown 1987-style telethon,” says Chris Bellinger, PepsiCo Foods’ chief creative officer, in the announcement. “The ‘Telethon for Hawkins’ is our rally for the fandom… we designed every element to make fans feel like they were part of the mission dialing into a snack-fueled hotline to the Upside Down.” 

(Retro TV is becoming a theme for Doritos: last month, it introduced a spot starring Walt Goggins as “A Spicy Plumber,” in an ad that’s straight out of a 1970s porn playbook.)

Meanwhile, Eggo is also hot on the series’ hype machine. The frozen waffle brand is rolling out limited-edition Eggo Stranger Things Strawberry Waffles, made with colors from natural sources.

To celebrate Eleven, the show’s lead character and her intense love for the waffles, the Kellanova-owned brand is also giving away 11,000 boxes of waffles on Instacart for four Fridays in October.