Doritos for ladies crumble after backlash

Lady Doritos -- purse-friendly chips with a lighter crunch and less mess -- seem to have crumbled before they even got started.

Last week in an interview with Freaknonomics host Stephen Dubner, PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi discussed the possibility of developing a gender-specific version of the chips.

"It's not a male and female as much as 'are there snacks for women that can be designed and packaged differently?' And yes, we are looking at it, and we're getting ready to launch a bunch of them soon. For women, low-crunch, the full taste profile, not have so much of the flavor stick on the fingers, and how can you put it in a purse? Because women love to carry a snack in their purse,” Nooyi said.

But when news of the interview hit social media, reaction was less than enthusiastic. Doritos has since issued a statement suggesting there are no further plans for female-friendly chips.

Many responses on social media suggested that lady Doritos was a tone-deaf reaction to the women’s empowerment movement sweeping the nation. Other responses took more political overtones and some just blasted PepsiCo for making a really bad business decision.

Yesterday evening after several hours of getting dragged on Twitter, PepsiCo/Doritos issued a statement via social media:

While that doesn't explicitly say Lady Doritos are off the table, the company said in a futher statement that reporting on the topic was "inaccurate" and they are always looking for ways to engage customers.