Jimmy Kimmel Inks Digital Content Deal with Tostitos

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By Todd Wasserman2013-12-13 05:35:25 UTC

Jimmy Kimmel is on board to help create snackable content for snack brand Tostitos.

The comedian and talk show host announced the deal on ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live Thursday night. Kimmel will create three sketches for the ESPN telecast of the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 1. Ram Krishnan, VP of Marketing for Frito-Lay, says Kimmel will also produce and star in more online bits on behalf of the brand in the first quarter of 2014.

"Most of the content will live outside the show," Krishnan says. "This is a first for us as a company."

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Three 30-second bits, and one that broke Thursday night, revolve around "The Worst Contest Ever," an actual contest in which fans are asked to mail a Tostitos chip to Kimmel. On Jan. 1, during the game, Kimmel will place all the chips he receives in a snack bowl. If he eats the chip you sent in, nothing happens and there's no prize.

"You get the satisfaction of mailing something in," Kimmel tells Mashable.

Kimmel said his inspiration came from pondering the notion of such sweepstakes. "I've always wondered who entered these contests," he says. "I picture 14 people huddled together in some underground bunker."

The late night host's first-quarter bits, meanwhile, are based on a practical joke in which he goes to football tailgate parties and asks people's opinions on fake products. Kimmel declined to say more except that the items are "unappetizing."

"We've seen that people are very wiling to lie when there's a camera pointed at them," Kimmel says.

For Tostitos, the potential upside is huge. Several of Kimmel's videos went viral in 2013 including an incident in which a woman who attempted to twerk fell and caught fire. That video, which has netted more than 14.7 million views, was revealed to be a Kimmel prank.

Kimmel says that he can't guarantee that any of his Tostitos videos will also go viral: "Sometimes things we've done that take five minutes have taken off and sometimes we'll spend three years on something and it goes nowhere."

Getty/Michael Kovac

Topics: Advertising, Business, jimmy kimmel, Marketing, Media