The $1 Million Chip: Lay's "Do Us A Flavor" Contest Returns With The Ultimate Comfort Food Winner

The iconic Lay's "Do Us A Flavor" contest is back in the spotlight, proving that a simple bag of potato chips can still generate million-dollar excitement. After a seven-year hiatus, the fan-favorite competition returned with a massive bang, drawing hundreds of thousands of submissions from across the United States. The grand prize? A cool $1 million and the eternal bragging rights of creating a permanent, beloved chip flavor. The latest winner, announced in 2025, has officially been crowned, and it's a nostalgic, cheesy, and smoky mashup of classic comfort food.

The campaign, which transforms everyday snackers into flavor innovators, has been a masterclass in crowdsourcing and consumer engagement since its debut. This most recent iteration, launched in late 2024, saw a return to form for the Frito-Lay division of PepsiCo, reinforcing the power of letting the public dictate the next big thing in the snack aisle. The winning flavor is already hitting shelves, prompting a nationwide rush to taste the newest million-dollar chip.

The Complete List of Lay's "Do Us A Flavor" US Winners

The "Do Us A Flavor" contest has run five times in the U.S., each time offering a grand prize of $1 million (or a substantial annual royalty). The competition has successfully unearthed some of the brand's most memorable and sometimes polarizing chip flavors, showcasing the diverse and often adventurous American palate. From cheesy classics to spicy global influences, here is a definitive list of every grand-prize winner in the contest's history, culminating with the latest 2025 champion.

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• 2012 Winner: Lay's Cheesy Garlic Bread
  • Winner: Karen Weber-Mendham, a librarian from Wisconsin.
  • Flavor Profile: A rich, savory blend capturing the essence of warm, buttery, and heavily seasoned garlic bread. This was the inaugural U.S. winner and set a high bar for comfort food flavors.
• 2014 Winner: Lay's Kettle Cooked Wasabi Ginger
  • Winner: Meneko Spigner McBeth, a nurse from Philadelphia.
  • Flavor Profile: A bold, unexpected combination of the sharp, sinus-clearing heat of wasabi root balanced by the sweet, aromatic warmth of ginger. This marked a shift toward more adventurous, internationally-inspired tastes.
• 2015 Winner: Lay's Southern Biscuits and Gravy
  • Winner: Hailey Green from Noblesville, Indiana.
  • Flavor Profile: A deeply savory, creamy, and peppery flavor designed to mimic the beloved Southern breakfast staple. It was a true test of whether a complex, hot breakfast could be translated into a crunchy chip.
• 2017 Winner: Lay's Crispy Taco
  • Winner: The winner received the $1 million prize.
  • Flavor Profile: A blend of seasoned ground beef, cheese, lettuce, and a hint of sour cream, aiming to capture the full experience of a crunchy, classic American taco.
• 2025 Winner: Lay's Bacon Grilled Cheese
  • Winner: Paula George from Sapulpa, Oklahoma.
  • Flavor Profile: The latest champion combines the salty, smoky crunch of bacon with the buttery, savory melt of grilled cheese. It represents the ultimate in nostalgic, simple, and satisfying food mashups, proving that sometimes, the best ideas are the ones closest to home.

The 2025 Contest: A Seven-Year Hiatus and a Triumphant Return

After the 2017 contest, the "Do Us A Flavor" campaign went dormant, leaving a vacuum in the world of experimental snacking. Fans and food critics speculated whether the contest was retired for good. However, in late 2024, Lay's announced its highly anticipated return, launching a new competition cycle that would conclude in 2025.

The return was a massive success, reportedly generating over 700,000 entries. The contest structure remained the same: fans submitted their flavor ideas, a panel of Lay's experts narrowed the field, and then the final selection was put to a public vote. The stakes were high, with the winning flavor earning its creator a life-changing $1 million prize.

The three finalists for the 2025 competition showcased a mix of global trends and classic American comfort foods:

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• Lay's Bacon Grilled Cheese: The eventual winner, submitted by Paula George.
• Lay's Valentina & Lime: A bold, spicy, and tangy offering, inspired by the popular Mexican hot sauce.
• Lay's Wavy Korean Style Fried Chicken: A globally-inspired, savory, and slightly sweet flavor, tapping into the huge popularity of K-food.

Ultimately, the public's vote leaned toward the familiar and comforting. Paula George's "Bacon Grilled Cheese" flavor was crowned the 2025 champion, proving that while people enjoy novelty, they often vote for a flavor that feels like a warm, nostalgic hug.

The Secret Sauce: Why "Do Us A Flavor" is a Marketing Masterpiece

Beyond the delicious chips and the life-changing prize money, the "Do Us A Flavor" campaign is a case study in brilliant marketing and consumer psychology. The contest taps into several powerful trends that make it an enduring success for the Lay's brand and its parent company, Frito-Lay.

Crowdsourcing as Innovation

The campaign is a prime example of crowdsourcing, where the brand leverages the creativity of its vast customer base for product innovation. Instead of relying solely on internal R&D, Lay's gets thousands of unique, culturally relevant, and highly localized flavor ideas. This not only saves research costs but also ensures that the finalists are flavors that consumers *actually* want to buy and try.

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The Power of Curiosity and Novelty

A core driver of the contest's success is the human desire for novelty. When the finalist flavors—such as *Southern Biscuits and Gravy* or *Wasabi Ginger*—hit the shelves, consumers are driven by curiosity to try them. This "limited-time only" scarcity model creates immediate demand, driving massive sales spikes and shelf space dominance for Lay's. Even the flavors that don't win generate immense buzz and social media discussion.

The Craziest and Most Avant-Garde Submissions

While the winners are often crowd-pleasers, the real fun of the contest lies in the sheer volume of wild, bizarre, and avant-garde flavor submissions that never make it past the initial screening. These submissions, often shared unofficially online, add to the campaign's legend and topical authority. Past years have seen submissions ranging from the truly strange to the deeply regional. Though most are never officially released, they highlight the inventive spirit of the American snacker.

Examples of the types of boundary-pushing ideas that have been submitted include:

• Philly Cheesesteak: A popular regional idea that is complex to translate to a chip.
• Deep Dish Pizza: Another regional favorite that requires a multi-layered flavor profile.
• Everything Bagel: A flavor that would require an intense mix of seeds and savory notes.
• Cilantro Cilantro Cilantro: A jokingly submitted flavor that shows the passion and boldness of some entrants.

The contest's return in 2024/2025 with the *Bacon Grilled Cheese* winner proves that the formula is timeless. Lay's has successfully turned a simple snack into a cultural event, making everyone feel like they have a stake in the future of the potato chip aisle. The question now is: how long will we have to wait for the next million-dollar flavor submission?