Tonight, Bill Hader will introduce Super Bowl fans to “Flavor Stacking” in Pringles 2018 Super Bowl commercial. The 30-second ad marks Pringles’ debut at the Super Bowl and will air during the second quarter of the game.
In the spot, Hader, who was a cast member on SNL for eight years and has received three Emmy nods for his work, stacks different flavors of Pringles chips. In an exclusive interview with Heavy, Hader spoke about the commercial, and how he got involved in the ad, which is directed by Rhys Thomas. Hader and Thomas have known each other for years; they first met while Rhys was directing and producing shorts for SNL.
The shoot for the commercial, aptly titled “Flavor Stacking”, lasted only a day. Asked how many chips he ate while filming the spot, Hader said, “I can’t… I can’t even remember. It was many.” Asked if it was in the hundreds, the actor replied, “Yeah, yeah, in the hundreds probably.”
Bill Hader on the set of Pringles Super Bowl Commercial, “Flavor Stacking”.
The comedian went on to say that between takes, he and the other two actors became pretty excited by the idea of stacking, and they continued to stack different flavors when the cameras weren’t rolling. Hader revealed the flavors he was most likely to stack were BBQ, Sour Cream, and Original, but sometimes he’d swap the Original out for Pizza.
At one point in the interview, Hader was asked what he would name a flavor that combined Screamin Dill Pickle with Top Ramen Chicken. He said, simply, “Scream Chicken. Or Pickle Chicken.”
A press release for “Flavor Stacking” reveals that with the number of Pringles crisp flavors available to customers, you can make approximately 267,720 unique flavor stacks. Yuvraj Arora, senior vice president of marketing for Kellogg’s U.S. Snacks division, says, “Fans are already familiar with Pringles‘ wide variety of flavors, but we want to show them how stacking their favorite flavors can ‘wow’ their taste buds in a whole new way. Since most people’s reaction to flavor stacking is ‘wow,’ we brought on the one person who could bring endless faces and reactions to that one word.”
According to the press release, the idea of stacking Pringles flavors came from Grey NY, Pringles’ Advertising Agency of Record. Sitting around the office, people at Grey began stacking different flavors and learned that in doing so, they could create new, out-of-this-world tastes.
What’s next for Hader? An HBO project called Barry, which he co-wrote and directed the series pilot of. The show started shooting in 2017 and is set to premiere on HBO on March 25, 2018. How’d he land on the idea for Barry? Hader says the idea came from Alec Berg and him sitting down and discussing what they want to do next. Hader explained that he’s done some dramatic roles in the past, and wanted to “lean into” that more. At the same time, he confessed, he loves comedy. Eventually, he and Berg were able to land on the idea of an aimless, low-rent hitman who finds family in the unlikely community of the LA theater scene.