NEW YORK – The next Lay’s potato chip will taste like chicken and waffles. Or cheesy garlic bread. Or Sriracha, a hot sauce often used in Thai dishes.

Lay’s is letting potato chip lovers decide which one of the three will be its newest flavor. All of them will be sold at retailers nationwide starting next week. After trying them, fans have until May to vote for their favorites. The flavor with the most votes will stay on store shelves.

But if the other two flavors sell, they may stay in stores, too, said Ann Mukherjee, chief marketing officer at Frito-Lay. “Who knows, we don’t know what’s going to happen.” she said.

It’s the latest promotional stunt that tries to engage customers through social media and direct interaction.

The flavors were suggested by three people through the company’s “Do Us a Flavor” campaign.

A panel of chefs and flavor experts looked though about 3.8 million submissions and selected about 20 flavors to prototype. From there, the judges picked the three finalists.

The person who submitted the winning flavor will win $1 million, or 1 percent of the chip’s 2013 sales, whichever is more. The runners-up will win $50,000.

 


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