Local potato farmer picked for Lay's commercial
| Monday, May 11 2009 06:28 PM
Last Updated Monday, May 11 2009 06:40 PM
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Brian Kirschenmann
Courtesy photo Chase, 5 months, and dad Brian Kirschenmann in a potato field in Lamont, California. The photo was taken in December.
A Bakersfield potato farmer was scheduled to ring the opening bell on the New York Stock Exchange Tuesday as part of a new advertising campaign.
Brian Kirschenmann, 35, is one of five growers who will star in individual Lay's potato chip television commercials to air in their home states, as well as a national commercial featuring all five growers.
The Lay's brand is part of the snack food family of PepsiCo's Frito-Lay North America business unit, based in Plano, Texas. It will begin airing the spots May 18.
The commercials are intended to inform viewers that the potatoes used in Lay's chips are grown in the United States.
The other featured growers are in Florida, Maine, Michigan and Texas.
The company wants consumers to know that when they buy Lay's, they are investing in their own communities, said Frito-Lay vice president of marketing Dave Skena.
He declined to divulge the budget for the campaign.
Kirschenmann, a fifth-generation California potato farmer, says he doesn't know why he was chosen to represent the company in the ads.
"I guess I wasn't as ugly as some of the other growers," he quipped.
Kirschenmann, who farms about 4,500 acres of potatoes at family-owned Kirschenmann Farms, said he's a little nervous about ringing in Tuesday's trading.
"All farmers are superstitious," he said. "I hope there's going to be a rally instead of a crash."
Parent company PepsiCo closed Monday at $49.58 per share, down 17 cents, or .34 percent.
Frito-Lay said it selected Kirschenmann after snooping around at the company's annual growers meeting.
"We wanted to celebrate the people and places that have made the Lay's name such an American icon," Skena said. "We picked people who had compelling stories, and also were in a part of the country where they'd be harvesting about the time we needed to shoot," Skena said.
"Brian's great, great-grandfather is rumored to have brought one of the first potato farms to California. That was kind of interesting."
