According to Frito-Lay research, women snack only 14% of the time on salty foods. 25% of the time, women choose sweet foods; the other 61% of snacking includes drinks, fruits and vegetables. Sounds fine…unless you're trying to sell salty chips.

Writes Stephanie Clifford:

Though Frito-Lay had often tried advertising snacks as guilt-free, this led to the conclusion that "we're not going to alleviate her guilt," Ms. Nykoliation [of the ad agency] said. "This is something in her life. So the question for us was, how do we not trip her guilt?"

Part of the strategy was to follow the success of SunChips by toning down the packaging and showing off healthy ingredients in the snacks.

"She wants a reminder that she's eating something better for her," Mr. Jones said.

The company will ditch the bright packaging of Baked Lay's and make it beige and more "healthy" looking. Plus, Frito-Lay has launched a new website, "A Woman's World." Here's where four "fab, funny, fearlessly female" cartoon women talk about exercising, eating and men. They'll star in ads, commercials and webisodes. (In one clip, one cartoon woman is going to Mexico and the other says to her, "So you're ready? All over? For a romantic getaway?" And the vacation-bound cartoon chick realizes she needs to go "tanning, waxing, buffing, lifting, plucking, polishing.") The site also has games, like "Anna's Yoga Boot Camp," in which, as a tipster notes, you have to run around catering to other people's needs. Just like a woman should! Meanwhile, at the grocery store, Frito-Lay will "pull all of its women-friendly snacks together at the end of the aisle where possible." Gannon Jones, the vice president for portfolio marketing at the company told the Times: "Often the chip aisle is disorganized and unappealing to women." Hear that ladies? You're having trouble navigating the chip aisle. They're gonna fix it for you.

Here's the thing about this lavish attention and expensive marketing: They want you to buy something you don't really need, and they're using your gender to shill it to you, even though statistics prove you'd rather have "drinks, fruits or vegetables." Even more interesting: Frito-Lay also owns Doritos, and a South American ad campaign references women in a very different way:
The copy reads, "Summer has arrived. More heat, less clothes." It may not make you want to eat chips, but neither do these cartoon ladies talking about push-up bras.

Frito-Lay Tries to Enter the Minds (and Lunch Bags) of Women [NY Times]
The Dorito Ain't Gonna Eat Itself. [Copyranter]
Related: A Woman's World

"Why Are Lesbians Always Fatter Than Straight Women?" from Pot Psychology on Vimeo.

So the chips are very yellow, with yellow powder and slightly green crystals. (Weird, I know!)

They smell like feet, but then again, so do Fritos. (My dog's paws always smell like Fritos!) As far as the taste goes, they're very sweet — the Doritos, not my dog's paws — with a vinegar/tangy kick. They're not bad, but it's not a flavor I would actually buy because I craved it. Here are the list of ingredients:

Whole corn, vegetable oil, corn, soybean, sunflower oil, sugar, salt, corn maltodestrin, fructose, dextrose, citric acid, buttermilk powder, monosodium glutamate, corn syrup, natural flavors, sodium diacetrate, modified corn starch, artificial color, and malic acid.

Yeah, no clues in there. WTF are "natural flavors"? Anyway, my official guess is: "Honey Mustard".

Do you see what we see?

Doritos!

On the left is the new Collisions Zesty Taco and Chipoltle Ranch (we know them well) and on the right is the perennial crowd-pleaser Cool Ranch flavor.

While The View was on hiatus, American opera singer Beverly Sills died. Turns out she was B. Dub's BFF, and Babs was understandably broken up about her passing, so she gave a really touching tribute on Tuesday's show, and wore this ring that Bev gave to her when she retired from 20/20.

I was so moved by the idea of inspirational accessories, that when I went to Atlantic City this week, I stopped in a cheapy jewelry shop on the boardwalk, bought a charm for $7.98 and had something meaningful engraved on it:

In case my camera-phone photography is too beautifully artistic for your eyes to comprehend what you're seeing, it's a heart that says "Doritos." Because Doritos are totally my boyfriend. Blazin' Buffalo Ranch. OK, and WTF is up with Mary Tyler Moore? She's like losing it, right? Something about her statistic that one female dog that's not spayed can produce over "76,000 puppies in a seven-year period" rings incredibly inaccurate. And nice frightening BJ face.

Speaking of frightening BJ faces:

I know I keep talking about Tyra and weaves, but that's only because Tyra keeps talking about Tyra and weaves. For real, her two fave topics are herself and fake hair. To be fair, those are now my two fave topics as well. This week she had on Jennifer Hudson (rerun) and asked her if she reuses expensive hair. (Surprise! Cheapo Tyra does!) And then she had an entire episode of giving Warren Tricomi makeovers to women with "America's Worst Hair." For the ep, TyTy donned some wack-ass wigs, I guess to make us laugh? Ty, you don't have to try that hard with us. We always laugh at you.

OK, moving on from BJ faces, how about some gay faces?

How can anyone refute the idea of there being a gay gene after the Huckabys went on Oprah? There are six children in their family, and four of the brothers turned out gay! Only three of the homo bros (hobros?) showed up for the taping. (What kind of a gay man is the fourth brother that he couldn't cancel his previous plans for Oprah Mother Fucking Winfrey? Answer: The kind of gay man I don't want to know.) And lastly, how can anyone refute the idea of a gay gene when this guy so clearly has gay eyes?