Potato chips on the eve of their social media moment

Taking crowdsourcing to new heights, Lay's potato chips is inviting consumers to go online from Friday with their ideas for a new flavor and the chance to win $1 million, AFP reports. "So glad you're excited to participate!" said the PepsiCo brand, which claims to be the maker of "America's favorite snack," in a teaser on its Facebook page (www.facebook.com/lays) for its "Do Us a Flavor" promotion. It gave no details, but USA Today quoted Lay's executives as saying the brand would pick three finalists, fry up their concoctions, put them on sale in early 2013, then let consumers return to Facebook to vote for the best one. The winner will get a choice between $1 million or one percent of his or her flavor's net sales in 2013. Jumping the starting gun a day early, potato chip lovers piled in Thursday with flavor suggestions including maple syrup, jerk chicken, Hawaiian spice, peanut butter, and something called the "strawberry banana overrun chip." Lay's has previously tapped social media in non-US markets to dream up such new snacks such as Caesar-salad-flavored chips in Australia, shrimp chips in Egypt and sausage-flavored chips in Poland, USA Today said.